ECUSA's Griswold to Join ARCIC Gathering Despite Warnings

The Presiding Bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church (ECUSA) Frank Griswold will join the launch of agreed statements of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission on 16th May 2005 in Seattle.

The announcement comes despite the calling of the Windsor report that bishops responsible for the consecration of homosexual Bishop Gene Robinson not to represent the Anglican Communion at ecumenical gatherings, reported the Episcopal Church's spokesmen to The Church of England Newspaper.

Even though both the Anglican Communion and Roman Catholic Church are attempting to reconcile and make joint statements on issues that caused the separation of the Church of England from Rome, there is much tension over the consecration of homosexual bishops and the blessing of same-sex marriages. These issues have caused an implacable rift within the Anglican Communion and resulted in the breaking of the Church - the Body of Christ.

Bishop Griswold was co-chairman of the group negotiating relations between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church since 1998. After the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson in 2003, he was forced to resign his position as co-chairman. He did so on 29th November 2003, following a meeting in Rome.

According to the National Catholic Register, an American Roman Catholic weekly, the Vatican reported that "The Vatican advised the Anglicans that long-term ecumenical plans must be suspended and that unless Griswold stepped down from his ecumenical post, the Catholics would cancel even their participation in the upcoming ARCIC announcement in Seattle."

Also according to the Windsor report his presence as the leader of the church, that elevated the first openly gay bishop, is not satisfactory.

Despite all this, he has decided to join the launch of the joint statement over the Virgin Mary commonly known as the Seattle statement, as he was invited by ARCIC's Roman Catholic co-chairman, Archbishop Alexander J Brunett of Seattle.

Bishop Griswold's assistant for communication said to The Church of England Newspaper that Bishop Griswold "had been invited to attend and now has been able to adjust to schedule to be there."

This is the second invitation from the Vatican's Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity (CPCU) in weeks: CPCU also invited him to inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.

The official delegation of the Anglican Communion present during the Seattle statement launch will include Archbishop Peter Carnley of Australia and Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), Deputy General Secretary Canon Gregory Cameron. As spokesman of the ACC reported, neither ACC nor Lambeth Palace was aware of Bishop Griswold's intention to attend the event in Seattle.