Read it all.

Check them out, the Convention was held this weekend.

On Oct. 31., the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church USA sent a letter to the bishop of Pittsburgh, directing him not to split the diocese from the denomination. Bishop Duncan replied by quoting Martin Luther, “Here I stand. I can do no other.”

It’s a powerful quote, but a misuse of history. Martin Luther didn’t leave the Roman Catholic Church; he was kicked out. He decided to “stand” and fight. It’s ironic that Bishop Duncan quoted Luther’s pledge to “stand” in order to justify his intention to “walk.”

Are my fellow conservatives fully aware of the biblical and patristic teachings on schism? How do they justify a break with the Episcopal Church to which they have literally sworn loyalty? How do they justify taking Episcopal property with them? Given Paul’s command to the first-century Corinthian Church not to address church issues in secular courts, how do they justify the inevitable legal battles that accompany a schism? How much will the litigation cost? Will the money come from our offerings?

There are moral questions, too. If we break with the Episcopal Church in America over gay priests, how can we then align ourselves with African bishops who tolerate polygamist priests? Paul says that a church leader is to be “the husband of one wife.” Do we think that the word “husband” is inerrant but the word “one” is not?

If the Episcopal Church really has become apostate and its current leaders really are enemies of God, then how can we justify leaving the church, its resources and its sheep in their care? If not, how can we justify this separation?

Read it all.

Saturday, the proposed resolution called on the Episcopal Church’s convention to develop and authorize same-sex union blessing rites, a step the national church has so far opposed.

However, 11 dioceses nationwide have approved official, written policies allowing the blessing of same-sex relationships, the resolution reads. It calls on Northern California’s to state that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are children of God and that the Episcopal Church “should grant them every blessing” other members receive.

Daniel Williamson, senior pastor of St. Johns Church in Roseville, said he’s one of those who respectfully opposes gay blessings, while accepting gay members as his brothers and sisters in Christ.

Williamson said his more traditional position against it stems from both the Bible’s rejection of homosexuality and because various Anglican archbishops have asked the Episcopal church not to appoint [noncelibate] gay clergy members.

Read it all.

Capping a race that drew worldwide attention, Rev. Jeffrey Lee, a Midwest native, was overwhelmingly elected Saturday as the next Episcopal bishop of Chicago.

At their annual diocesan convention at the Westin Hotel in suburban Wheeling, church delegates chose Lee from eight candidates, which included a lesbian priest, Rev. Tracey Lind, dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland.

Lee, 50, is rector of St. Thomas Church in Medina, Wash., but was born and raised near Kalamazoo, Mich., and ordained in northern Indiana. He becomes Chicago’s 12th Episcopal bishop and leader of 41,000 Episcopalians.

“I am overwhelmed and grateful to God for the opportunity to come to such a great diocese,” Lee said by telephone. “In many ways, I believe Chicago reflects the face of the Episcopal Church in all its diversity. Rich and poor, urban and suburban, black and white, gay and straight … and I believe I’ve been called to be a bridge-builder and a reconciler.”

The election marked the most recent flash point in the conflict over homosexuality in the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion. The 2003 consecration of Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, began a shift in the church and some thought there would be further divisions if Lind were elected bishop.

When asked about his stance on gays in the church, Lee said he supported full inclusion.

“I believe God is calling us to full inclusion of gays and lesbians in ministry of this church. … There is a place for everyone in the church, and the church has to catch up with God’s vision,” he said.

Read it all.

If elected, the Rev. Tracey Lind of Cleveland would have been only the second openly gay U.S. bishop and the first women ever elected to head the Chicago Diocese.

Episcopal church observers said the results weren’t a referendum on the issue for the diocese.

“The people in Chicago wanted the person who could function well in a large, diverse urban diocese,” said the Rev. Kendall Harmon, a church strategist from South Carolina. “Jeffrey Lee came off as the best person.”

Read it all.

Update: An AP article is here.

The first ballot tabulations are available.

Update: Lee elected on the second ballot.

With the election of a new diocesan bishop on the agenda tomorrow (Nov. 10), clergy and lay delegates to Diocese of Chicago’s two-day convention in Wheeling decisively approved a resolution calling on General Convention 2009 to overturn the moratorium on the consecration of partnered homosexual candidates to the episcopacy.

“By approving this resolution we would join a growing list of dioceses who have voted to uphold the canons of our church,” said the Rev. Ruth Meyers, professor of liturgy at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, prior to debate. “It does not endorse a particular candidate for tomorrow’s election.”

There are eight nominees on the ballot for the election of a bishop. One is a partnered lesbian. The House of Bishops, meeting in New Orleans in late September, affirmed that the bishops would “as a body” honor Resolution B033, which calls on standing committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise caution before granting consent to the consecration of a partnered homosexual candidate.

About 15 people followed Ms. Meyers to the podium to speak to the motion, nearly all in favor of adoption, including the Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean and president of Seabury, who described B033 as bad legislation theologically and a violation of church law. The resolution also runs the risk of politicizing the consent process, he said.

Read it all.

Delegates to convention in the Diocese of Rochester passed a resolution affirming that standing committees and bishops with jurisdiction are not bound by any extra-canonical restraints””including but not limited to the restraints set forth in Resolution B033 passed by the 75th General Convention””when considering consents to the ordination of any candidate to the episcopate. The resolution is intended to be submitted to the 76th General Convention in 2009.

Convention met Nov. 2-3 at the Hyatt Regency in Rochester.

The last convention address for Bishop Jack McKelvey took the form of a video presentation that celebrated many of the people, places and ministries he has encountered. Bishop McKelvey will retire next spring after eight years of service in Rochester and 16 as a bishop.

Read it all.

Read it carefully and read it all.

It was “business as usual” at the convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania on November 3, just hours before the inhibition of its bishop, Charles E. Bennison, took effect.

In the only direct reference from the podium at Philadelphia Cathedral to Bennison’s suspension, diocesan Chancellor William Bullitt told clergy and lay delegates that as of 12:01 a.m. November 4 Bennison was barred from all canonical, episcopal and ministerial functions indefinitely. In his brief statement, Bullitt said the diocesan standing committee would become the ecclesiastical authority on November 4 and that it will appoint a bishop to conduct future ordinations, confirmations and parish visitations until the Court for the Trial of a Bishop determines Bennison’s fate.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori announced the inhibition, with the concurrence of the standing committee, on October 31 after an investigation concluded there was ample evidence for a trial to proceed.

Read it all.

By a vote of 299-79, clergy and lay delegates voted to approve an amended resolution calling for the 2008 Lambeth Conference to be postponed “until the listening process is more complete.”

This resolution was submitted by Bishop Suffragan Nedi Rivera after convention began. The wording of the resolution will comprise the text of a letter sent to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori over the signature of bishops Greg Rickel and Rivera. This letter is to serve as the input requested by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who asked for advice from the House of Bishops on how to respond to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has asked the primates for their advice as he weighs a decision on the House of Bishops “response ”˜to questions and concerns raised by our Anglican Communion partners’.”

The text approved by the convention said, “We are leery about using the occasion of the [2008 Lambeth] Conference to present a Covenant that is exclusionary, that centralizes authority, or that adds to the core doctrine of our faith. The cost of holding the Lambeth Conference under the present circumstances is disproportionate to its benefits, and the good we can do elsewhere in the mission of the church.”

Read it all.

As I feared might happen, your friendly diocesan convention news elf (me) has been super-swamped with her real job and ministry responsibilities of late, and so hasn’t been following the diocesan convention news much at all. Sorry about that. (Kendall’s been doing a pretty good job, covering the news, however. So, I think we’ll keep him on the payroll! 😉 ) But the following picture from the diocese of Michigan’s diocesan convention just couldn’t be ignored and pulled this elf out of self-imposed blogging exile, if just for a few minutes…

The caption reads: “Bishop Wendell Gibbs led the Diocesan Convention worship on Saturday, October 27.”

The accompanying story is here along with full coverage of the convention resolutions, the bishop’s address, etc.

In yet another ecclesiastical earthquake to rock the Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh has voted to leave that denomination and realign with a theologically conservative Anglican province in another, yet to be chosen, nation.

At their annual convention in Johnstown, laity voted, 118-58, and clergy voted, 109-24, to join another Anglican province, and to allow like-minded parishes outside the 11-county territory to become part of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The vote came two days after Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church warned that such action could cause the denomination to remove Bishop Robert Duncan from office as bishop of Pittsburgh.

“We have a tough road ahead. We will be faithful and charitable and do everything we can to help those congregations who are uneasy about this, or who may be very opposed to this, to be part of our fellowship,” Bishop Duncan said after the vote. During his speech prior to the vote, he proposed finding ways for two local Anglican dioceses, one of which would be the minority still aligned with the Episcopal Church, to share important assets such as Trinity Cathedral and Sheldon Calvary Camp.

Read it all.

Watch it all.

As a diocese we have come to a fork in the road. Some will take one course forward. Others will elect the other course. All of us will choose the road we do because of our Faith, because of how we understand the Gospel. But our understandings are quite different. Indeed, it has become clear that our understandings are not only different, but mutually exclusive, even destructive to one another. .

This is not a place we would wish to stay, even if we could. Forces beyond our control have been inching us toward ”“ sometimes hurtling us toward — this fork for a very long time. The Episcopal Church [at least the majorities of the bodies that claim to speak for it] has declared itself “separate and independent” [B032, 75th General Convention], has refused on constitutional and canonical grounds to provide sufficient differentiation to our diocese under our request for Alternative Primatial Oversight and the Communion’s plan for a Primatial Vicar, has declared the “firewall” erected by our 2003/2004 amendment to Article I of our diocesan constitution to be “null and void.” and has made it clear in the consent process for former Pittsburgh priest Mark Lawrence that conservative dioceses like Pittsburgh will never again be allowed to simply elect a bishop of their own choosing. [While unofficial reports this week indicate consent has finally been obtained for Fr. Mark ”“ one year and two first-ballot elections later ”“ the point I am making is more than proved by what has been demanded and required.] This is why we are at the fork in the road, and why a choice by all of us can no longer be avoided. These realities are the context in which this 142nd Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh assembles. This is the context of this address. So rather than the accustomed “year-in-review/year-in-prospect” address I believe it best to focus on the defining decisions before us, leaving the budget, the videos, the mission minutes and the numerous printed and spoken reports to summarize the richness and the commitments of our wider life as a diocese.

THE TIME HAS COME

Divided in Essentials (without prospect of short-term resolution)

Since the General Convention’s decision to confirm the election of a same-sex partnered bishop for the Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003, we in the Diocese of Pittsburgh have discussed, debated and attempted to convince each other about whether this action, and the Scriptural re-imaging behind it, was church-rending or not. We have faced into these issues in six successive Special and Annual Conventions, and in many other settings. What is more, majority leadership in the diocese has sought to involve the global Anglican Communion in forcing a retreat by the national Episcopal Church, just as minority leadership in the diocese has resorted to civil litigation to attempt to coerce the diocesan majority into submitting to the Faith and Order innovations of the wider Episcopal Church. The formation of the Anglican Communion Network, the overwhelming vote for Alternative Primatial Oversight and for ending participation in Province Three were met by vestry resolutions of disassociation from the Network, loyalty oaths to the new Presiding Bishop, and unofficial representatives at Province Three. Four years into this, we are more polarized, not less, and there is no prospect of resolution, only of a mediated separation as an alternative to the public scandal of ever-spiraling litigation or canonical proceedings.

Against this backdrop, this year’s pre-Convention hearings, numerous parish and district meetings, gatherings of clergy and lay leaders in both camps, staggering legal expenses, private attempts to open channels to a mediated parting ”“ all reveal a growing acceptance in the diocese that our differences are presently irreconcilable, and that for most realignment of the diocese with another Province of the Communion (and even the acknowledged possibility of failure in the attempt) would be preferable to carrying on the fruitless effort at continued federation with the Episcopal Church. It is clear to most on both sides, that continuing efforts to convince, at best, and coerce, at worst, will only deepen the failure of all. A charitable and gracious provision for the minority to stay within the realigned fellowship of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh or to be given freedom to separate from us and align more directly with the wider Episcopal Church has also emerged as a course for which there is, I believe, a strengthening consensus.

Read it all.

Episcopalians nationwide are watching as leaders and delegates of the Episcopal Church’s Pittsburgh Diocese converge on Johnstown today to consider separating from their national affiliation.

“It is like my parents are getting divorced,” said Cindy Leap, parishioner at St. Mark’s Episcopalian Church in Johnstown. “I have to pick whether to go with my mommy or daddy.”

A constant struggle over beliefs is deeply affecting local and national congregations, said the Rev. Mark Zimmerman of St. Francis in-the-Fields Episcopal Church near Somerset.

“This is not about the Episcopal Church. There is nobody who is not going to be touched by this,” he said.

“Every major denomination in America is wrestling with this issue. Even though it takes us out of our comfort zone, we have to wrestle with it.

“God is calling us to take a stand.”

Read it all.

The head of the Episcopal Church has warned Pittsburgh Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr. that he will face civil suits and possible expulsion as bishop if a proposed resolution enabling the diocese to leave the denomination passes during today’s diocesan convention.

A diocesan spokesman said the letter from Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, sent by fax to the Pittsburgh Diocese office late Wednesday, was “intended, honestly, to intimidate the convention.”

The 142nd annual convention is being held today and tomorrow in Johnstown.

Read it all.

Mr. [Peter] Frank reported little to no additional communication to the diocesan office after the Presiding Bishop’s letter became public late yesterday. Support for Bishop Duncan and the direction in which he is leading the diocese is both broad and deep, Mr. Frank said.

Although a public response to the Presiding Bishop’s letter is not expected until tomorrow, Mr. Frank said there have been no changes to the convention agenda and none are anticipated. Following his address, Bishop Duncan will read aloud to convention his response to Bishop Jefferts Schori, he added.

Read it all.

At the same time, I can’t help thinking of friends from Montana whom I first met at Hope and a Future in 2005. Then members of an Episcopal parish, they now belong to Christ Church Anglican in Butte, a mission of Uganda. They saw the writing on the wall and left without their property to begin the work of converting the world in another place. I ask myself, how catholic it is for those of us in hitherto ”˜safe’ jurisdictions to praise them for their faith, yet offer them nothing in the way of institutional support. A few years ago it was accepted that an ACN bishop who offered pastoral care to such a group was likely to find himself facing a presentment for boundary crossing; hence, the African ”˜incursions.’ It does not seem right that we should continue to stand apart from them indefinitely. The International Convocation was a good beginning, but it left such parishes isolated from their brethren still within The Episcopal Church. So on Friday, I expect to vote in favor of the proposed changes to constitution and canons, but I will do it without the conviction that I would wish at such a time as this. Not because I feel it is disloyal to my commitment to The Episcopal Church, for loyalty must be to doctrine as well as discipline, but because, in so doing, I have taken it upon myself to advance a course that will move American Anglicanism away from the catholic model that defined The Episcopal Church from the struggles of the 1870s to the struggles of the 1970s.

Read it all.

Now a word about the Anglican Communion. The bottom line is this: We are in the Anglican Communion. As you are perhaps aware, I have now been to two House of Bishops’ meetings both scheduled after the February Primates Communique.

I have also attended a consultation In Spain with both American and African bishops and which included six primates. In all cases I have heard and sensed a strong desire to remain together for the work of healthier global Anglican mission.
There are four instruments of communion in the Anglican Communion: The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Consultative Council, The Lambeth Conference, and the Primates. I am pleased to note that the report of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council was predominately positive regarding the September House of Bishops meeting. I have been invited to the 2008 Lambeth Conference and, in fact, just received a supplementary invitation two weeks ago.

Does this mean everything is resolved within our Communion? By no means. I think it does mean that there are many agreed-upon issues of mission on our global plate: poverty, the AIDS/HIV pandemic and other urgent disease problems, clean water, ongoing disaster relief and other issues . We are best situated to address them by working together in communion, in the Spirit.

I am pleased that our diocese is now a member of the Compass Rose Society. This is an organization that supports the work of the Anglican Communion and the Archbishop of Canterbury. I do not know how the future will continue to unfold within Anglicanism but I do know God is working His purpose out. I like being an Episcopalian. I like being an Anglican. I fully expect to be both for the rest of my life.

Read it all

Maine Episcopalians passed a resolution at their annual convention Friday that calls for England to rescind a charter issued more than 500 years ago.

The resolution calls for the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Queen of England to disavow the 1496 royal charter issued to John Cabot and his sons, according to information on the Web site for the Episcopal Diocese of Maine. It passed by a vote of 175 to 135.

The Maine diocese is the first in the nation to pass such a resolution, according to John Dieffenbacker-Krall, a member of St. James’ Episcopal Church in Old Town and the executive director of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission. He asked the diocesan Committee on Indian Relations to submit the resolution to the convention.

The charter authorized the Cabots “to find, discover, and investigate whatsoever islands, countries, regions, provinces of heathens and infidels … which before this time were unknown to all Christians.” The charter also says that “John and his sons or their heirs may conquer, occupy and possess, as our vassals and governors, lieutenants and deputies therein, acquiring for us the dominion, title and jurisdiction of the same towns, castles, cities, islands, and mainlands so discovered.”

This Doctrine of Discovery, set forth by King Henry VII, was relied upon as justification for the dispossession of lands and the subjugation of non-Christian people, according to information on the Web site.

Read it all.

The Diocese of El Camino Real adopted its 2008 budget Oct. 27 by unanimous voice vote, a turn of events that was a pleasant surprise to those who recall past annual conventions at which every line item was cause for extensive debate.

Bishop-elect Mary Gray-Reeves, who has been in the office for six weeks, attributed the unanimity to the amount of money there was to fight over.

“We don’t have a lot of money,” she said in an interview during a break in the convention.

Read it all.

Check them out.

The spirit of the Fall House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans was extraordinary. We heard clear statements ”“ not many questions, but clear statements, some of them confronting to be sure ”“ from several guests who are members of the Anglican Consultative Council. For me the presence and ministry of the Archbishop of Canterbury was a blessing. To hear him speak of the situation of his own ministry, and gently to challenge us in ours, is so different from reading about him through the press or even unpacking his own writing.

Read it all.

You know, I think of myself as a person of deep faith, but truly, honestly, if you would have told me four years ago that we would be where we are today in terms of membership, clarity of mission, finances, enthusiasm, lay and clergy leadership, and yes, joy, I would not have believed you! It appears that the Lord is richly blessing our work and our faithfulness, and we are seeing glimpses of the first fruits of our diligent labor.

We believe our membership is growing. Over the past two years we may have gained more than 500 new members! Now let’s remember that these numbers have been accumulated by human hands, and so it isn’t time to throw the party just yet, but if this is in any way accurate, it means we have grown by as much as a parish the size of St. John’s, Wichita.

This increase in membership remains to be confirmed, and it will have to continue for several more years to be a clear trend, but I believe a sustained focus on membership and growth will result in a sustained increase in membership and growth.

It appears that this growth has happened in both large and small parishes, and it has happened primarily through the efforts of strong local leadership and good old-fashioned “elbow grease”: more contacts, more phone calls, more visits, meaningful worship, effective education for children and youth, a clear commitment to mission and outreach, and clear and intentional programs for incorporating newcomers into the life of the parish family.

Our campus ministries program is booming! You will hear more about it from the missioners themselves, but a key component of our shared ministry has finally fallen into place. Craig Loya and Susan Terry have visited 26 parishes, and we have now have 14 peer ministers working on six campuses ”“ Johnson County Community College, Emporia State, Wichita State and Labette County Community College, along with our ongoing ministries at Kansas State and the University of Kansas.

Conversations have begun with 12 additional parish partners, and there isn’t a parish in this diocese that couldn’t establish a link with a local college, university or community college in the next year.

Our youth ministries program is booming! Our success on college campuses owes a great deal to the work being done at the junior and senior high level by Chad Senuta and a committed cadre of volunteers and young interns. Youth ministry cannot happen without faithful adults who love kids, and in the past year Chad has been working to establish an advocacy program, so that every parish has a least one adult who serves as an advocate for youth, whether that parish has any youth or not. Most of our parishes have responded, but there is still an opportunity for the few churches that still need to appoint a youth advocate.

Our stewardship and planned giving is growing! Char DeWitt and the Stewardship and Development Committee have developed a quality, “turn-key” stewardship program that any parish in the diocese can put to use, and they are in the process of developing an excellent planned giving program of the same quality. Char has conducted more than 15 vestry workshops and has made more than 100 visits with vestries, priests and stewardship chairs.

This is all great work ”“ extraordinary, really ”“ but I have a dream, that what we do here in this moment in time will be truly great. I have a dream that on our watch, during our period of responsibility for this church, we will set a standard that will make future generations look back at our faithfulness with the same respect and awe we now express for the faithfulness of previous generations in this diocese. I dream that we will truly put out into the deep, that we will refuse to settle for a mediocre vision, a pale imitation of the real thing.

Read it all.

“I think the resolution properly augments my pastoral goal of caring alike for all of the people of the diocese, not reinforcing damaging distinctions,” Bishop Andrus said in his address. “I also think, at the same time, that the resolution writers have honored the spirit of the Windsor Report and subsequent requests from the primates of the Communion to not develop ”˜public rites’.”

The resolution on blessings was one of nine adopted by convention. The resolution garnering the most debate was one proffered by the standing committee calling for “the creation of the position of assistant bishop” and authorizing “the Bishop of California to appoint a bishop for that position, whose appointment is subject to the consent of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of California.”

Read it all.

For the first time since 2003, delegates to convention in the Diocese of Southwest Florida rejected a resolution which would have allowed congregations to redirect apportionment payments away from the program budget of the General Convention.

Similar resolutions had passed at the 2003-2005 conventions. Last year, a procedural error kept the resolution from being considered but diocesan council approved a mechanism to implement the procedure anyway.

Bishop Dabney Smith used his Oct. 20 convention address, his first as diocesan, to steer a new course for Southwest Florida, one with an emphasis on mission, outreach and young adults. He also elaborated on a line item in the budget providing for an assistant bishop.

Read it all.

Elected representatives of the Episcopal Diocese of California today approved use of rites for the blessing of same gender couples by an overwhelming margin. The action opens the way for Diocesan Bishop Marc Andrus to allow these services to be used on a trial basis by Episcopal churches across the Bay Area.

Clergy and lay delegates also approved by a broad majority a resolution countering recent opinions voiced by the Episcopal House of Bishops in New Orleans. Drafted by the Rev. John Kirkley, the resolution both affirmed “the unanimous decision of the (Diocesan) Standing Committee to refuse to discriminate against partnered gay and lesbian bishops-elect” and deplored
“the lack of access to adequate pastoral and ritual care for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in large parts of the Episcopal Church and the refusal of the majority of our bishops to make provision for it.

“Today we took two important steps toward full inclusion of LGBT people and their families into the Episcopal Church,” Oasis California President Thomas C. Jackson said. Oasis is the LGBT ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of California. “With broad support from our straight allies, we placed LGBT couples on an equal footing with heterosexual couples when they ask the church to bless their relationship. Our elected representatives also made clear our collective commitment to including LGBT people as full members of the Episcopal Church.”

Read it all.

PASSED by voice vote
Resolution 2007-01 “Pledge to National Church”
Be it resolved, by the 133rd Annual Convention of the Diocese of Fond du Lac, that the system used for 2007 to adjust our pledge to the national church through individual restrictions be continued for 2008, and
Be it further resolved that subsequent to the calculation of the ‘restricted’ pledge, that ten percent of the non-restricted operating diocesan income for 2006 become our pledge to the national church for 2008

PASSED by orders
Resolution 2007-02 “Proposed Anglican Covenant”
Be it resolved, by the 133rd Annual Convention of the Diocese of Fond du Lac, that
1. The Diocese of Fond du Lac welcomes such a Covenant process as the development of a document of what has hitherto been unwritten.
2. The Diocese of Fond du Lac believes that the draft from Dar es Salaam is a worthy beginning and encourages its further development along the lines suggested as the Covenant describes the limits of autonomy, while encouraging interdependence in Communion.
3. The Diocese of Fond du Lac believes that autonomy is limited by interdependence and so commits itself to be subject to the wisdom of the Communion and its instruments of unity and Communion.
4. The Diocese of Fond du Lac commits itself to work with the Anglican Communion in the development of an effective interdependent and accountable membership in the Anglican Communion.
5. The Diocese of Fond du Lac commits itself to working within the structures of the Episcopal Church, USA.
And,
Be it further resolved, that a copy of this resolution certified by the Secretary of this Convention, be forwarded to the Presiding Bishop, the Secretary of the House of Bishops for distribution to the House of Bishops, the President and Secretary of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church for distribution to the members of the Executive Council and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

PASSED by orders
Resolution 2007-03 “Anglican Pastoral Scheme”
Be it resolved, by the 133rd Annual Convention of the Diocese of Fond du Lac, that
1. The Diocese of Fond du Lac, expresses its regret that the leadership of the Episcopal Church has rejected this pastoral scheme, and
2. The Diocese of Fond du Lac, asks the leadership of the Episcopal Church to provide meaningful pastoral support and oversight to the dissenting minority, having involved persons from that dissenting minority in discussion,
And,
Be it further resolved, that a copy of this resolution certified by the Secretary of this Convention, be forwarded to the Presiding Bishop, the Secretary of the House of Bishops for distribution to the House of Bishops, the President and Secretary of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church for distribution to the members of the Executive Council and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

PASSED by orders
Resolution 2007-04 “Regarding National Church Litigation”
Be it resolved, by the 133rd Annual Convention of the Diocese of Fond du Lac, that
The Diocese of Fond du Lac, asks that the National Church cease its participation in the litigation that is at present before the courts and any future such litigation of the type referenced in the Dar es Salaam communique.
And, Be it further resolved, that a copy of this resolution certified by the Secretary of this Convention, be forwarded to the Presiding Bishop, the Secretary of the House of Bishops for distribution to the House of Bishops, the President and Secretary of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church for distribution to the members of the Executive Council and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

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