After the private discussion, the plenary was reopened to the public. Members of the writing committee were joined by four additional bishops: J. Jon Bruno of Los Angeles, John Howe of Central Florida, Stacy Sauls of Lexington (Kentucky) and Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island. Bishop Jenkins did not join the drafting team. Instead he left in order to bless the dedication of a new health facility.

Read it all.

A snippet from Matt Kennedy’s live blog of tonight’s press conference. Please remember this may not be word-for-word accurate (as Matt+ says, this is live not memorex). A few typos corrected by the elves.

NPR: to Bruno, do you see any possibility of TEC reversing course with regard to sexuality issues

Bruno: I don’t believe we’ll ever turn back the clock. We are not responding to that right now. WE are responding to what has been asked of us. As to whether we are going to withdraw our support for gay and lesbian people in the church. no they are fully franchised. Are we going to exacerbate the situation no.

The full live blog is here.

Update: there’s also this at BabyBlue regarding the rest of +Bruno’s remarks this evening. What was it Kendall wrote last week about Honesty vs. Obfuscation?

Update 2: Stand Firm has more on the question of +Bruno’s involvement in SSBs in Los Angeles. Note: Matt is now working from a *recording* of the press conference, thus +Bruno’s actual word’s, not a mere close approximation.

[i]Since this story has already been written through once, we’re going to post it in full, so as to have a copy in case of future revisions[/i]

House of Bishops begins to prepare Primates’ Communiqué response
Text in draft form only; final action expected September 25

By Pat McCaughan, September 24, 2007
[Episcopal News Service] Editor’s note: The text is a write-through of a previously posted article.

Solidarity with the disenfranchised guided the discussion September 24 as the House of Bishops began to draft its formal statement to the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion culminating its five-day meeting in New Orleans.

The text is in draft form only and will be finalized and released September 25. The document is expected to serve as a response to the Primates’ Communique.

Bishop Wayne Wright of Delaware, who chaired the writing committee, cautioned that the discussion was a “draft only” and that a final statement would not be released until it had been adopted on September 25 by the bishops. The document itself was withheld and its contents embargoed until it can be finalized.

“This is only a draft,” Wright emphasized. “Tomorrow we will perfect and adopt it and then it will be released.”

During a morning session devoted to reviewing the draft text, bishops suggested strengthening language regarding the incursion of overseas bishops into dioceses other than their own, and dividing the lengthy draft into two separate documents. One text would deal specifically with hurricane relief and the other with the response to the Primates communiqué issued in February.

Bishop Charles Jenkins of Louisiana and numerous others suggested that a statement be developed to highlight the need for justice work in all dioceses on such issues as racism, classism, as well as regards the failed response for hurricane victims. Another document would deal with the response to the February Primates’ Communique.

Bishop Mark Hollingsworth Jr. of Ohio called for “clarity about the lines we draw in our church” so that any “line we draw is not between us but encircles us” to encompass the comprehensiveness of the Church’s convictions.

He went on to cite his struggle with repeated requests to clarify what General Convention has already decided, and that General Convention’s legislative process results in resolutions that are “intentionally ambiguous” in order to include the breadth of those convictions.

He described Resolution B033 as “an honest expression of where the Episcopal Church stands” and urged that “we appreciate the Lambeth subcommittee’s statement of its sufficiency.”

B033 called for the exercise of restraint when consecrating bishops “whose manner of life” presents a challenge to the wider communion.

Bishop J. Jon Bruno of Los Angeles also said that the resolution needs to be clearer “that we’re going to abide by the decisions of General Convention.”

After receiving the initial draft, bishops conferred with one another briefly a their tables. Some bishops then moved to microphones to offer responses frequently interrupted with applause and encouragement.

“This process represents what is best about the Episcopal Church and how our bishops work together, our meetings are open and we work together as colleagues to develop a statement that will express fully our minds and our hearts,” committee chair Wright said.

Bishop Barry Beisner of Northern California called for strengthening of language regarding bishops’ incursions into geographic dioceses other than their own. “General Convention voted for resolution B033 and we stand by what they did,” he told bishops.

After spending a day involved in hurricane rebuilding and recovery efforts, bishops said they were “shocked and outraged” at conditions in New Orleans and Mississippi, including delayed and in some cases nonexistent rebuilding and recovery efforts.

Bishop Dorsey Henderson of Upper South Carolina voiced his own sense of “fury at dishonest contractors’ exploitation” of hurricane victims many of whom two years later still face overwhelming devastation. His remarks were heartily applauded.

— The Rev. Pat McCaughan is senior associate for parish life at St. George’s Church and Academy in Laguna Hills, California. She is also a correspondent for the Diocese of Los Angeles and Episcopal News Service.

[source: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_90404_ENG_HTM.htm]

Lots of detail and comments from bishops in this — recommended reading.

Summarizing the days work as drawing from their experience with the poor and displaced in New Orleans, the Episcopal News Service reports that Mondays work in forming a statement to the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion was guided by “solidarity with the disenfranchised.”

The Rev. Patricia McCaughan writes the following for the Episcopal News Service:

Bishops suggested strengthening language regarding the incursion of overseas bishops into dioceses other than their own, and dividing the lengthy draft into two separate documents. One text would deal specifically with hurricane relief and the other with the response to the Primates’ communiqué issued in February.

Bishop Charles Jenkins of Louisiana and numerous others suggested that a statement be developed to highlight the need for justice work in all dioceses on issues such as racism, classism, as well as the failed response for hurricane victims. Another document would deal with the response to the February Primates’ communiqué.

Bishop Mark Hollingsworth, Jr. of Ohio said “Resolution B033 is the most honest expression of where the Episcopal Church stands” while
asking to clarify language about the blessing of same-gender unions. B033 called for the exercise of restraint when consecrating bishops “whose manner of life” presents a challenge to the wider communion.

Bishop J. Jon Bruno of Los Angeles also said that the resolution needs to be clearer in saying “that we’re going to abide by the decisions of General Convention.”

The full story is here. We’ll post the link for the ENS story when we find it online

As I write this, the US bishops are reading through the first draft of their ‘message’ that will be their communique from the meeting. When it is finished, about lunch time their time (they are six hours behind) it will go to the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Primates’ Meeting. They will then study it, write a report to the Archbishop of Canterbury and issue a brief statement of their own. That will be between 6pm and 9pm New Orleans time. Their report will detail where they believe the Anglican Communion is at that time, in relation to the ‘message’ from the US bishops. The Archbishop will then consult individually with every one of the Primates before publishing his own response.

‘There has been some very dedicated hard work to find a language which the majority of the House of Bishops can gather around and which will meet the requests of the wider communion,’ the second insider told me. He was definite that the Dar es Salaam communique was not going to be met in full. The question that is still wide open – the question of which direction the episcopal shoal will swim off in tonight – is whether there will be any attempt to go with Dar es Salaam, or whether they will reject it completely and utterly and veer off into the uncharted depths of schism. ‘It could be anything from outright rejection of Dar es Salaam, to a genuine attempt to meet the Dar es Salaam communique on their terms. People in the meeting have been honest and frank, to the point of being quite harsh on one another. The bishops can be in no doubt of the tensions that have been caused in the Communion. There have not been arguments but there has been plain speaking.’

Read it all.

StandFirm: http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/6259/

Baby Blue: http://babybluecafe.blogspot.com/

Steve Waring has two new articles posted for TLC.

The first is a brief article “Writing Group Presents House of Bishops With Draft”

He outlines what happened and identifies the members of the working group. His summary:

Aside from a brief positive reference to a pastoral scheme based around delegated pastoral episcopal oversight (DEPO), the statement offered few new proposals with respect to the three requests made of The Episcopal Church by the primates in their communique last February. The statement noted that the Windsor Report had commended DEPO and suggested that this could form the basis for a way acceptable to the bishops for ministering to minority groups that are unable to accept the current direction of The Episcopal Church on issues of human sexuality.

The statement also noted that the church’s position on same-sex blessings has not been well received by a significant number of Anglicans worldwide, but no details on how the situation might be improved. It was largely silent on the possible consecration of additional partnered homosexual persons as bishops.

You can read it all here.

The second is entitled: Bishops Struggle to Craft Satisfactory Statement

As members of the House of Bishops began filing out of the plenary hall for lunch Monday, several expressed dissatisfaction with the direction taken in the draft statement proposed by the writing committee. The proposed draft attempted to incorporate the main points contained in many of the resolutions previously submitted for consideration, albeit with watered-down language in at least some cases.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori suggested that the statement by the writing committee should be considered a substitute version of the original resolutions that were submitted. The writing committee is not scheduled to present a revised draft of its statement until Tuesday morning, the final day of the House of Bishops’ Sept. 20-25 meeting in New Orleans.

“We need to give the Archbishop of Canterbury something more than this,” said Bishop John Chane of Washington. Bishop Chane said he would seek a point of privilege to debate a revised version of a resolution that Bishop Charles Jenkins of Louisiana originally submitted before the meeting began. Bishop Chane said he and Bishop J. Jon Bruno of Los Angeles had been working with Bishop Jenkins to perfect the original language.

Under the rules of procedure by which the house is governed, Bishop Chane’s motion may be denied or accepted for a vote by Bishop Jefferts Schori, who presides. If accepted, his proposal to change the agenda would require approval from a majority of those present.

In other news from Monday morning, the joint steering committee of the primates and the Anglican Consultative Council held their private meeting this morning.

The full article is here.

A work in progress … we’ll be adding to this throughout the day as we come across interesting blog entries, etc. Feel free to post links in the comments.

This is for now very rough, but we’re juggling a lot of stuff. (Note posts are in the order I came across them in my RSS feed reader.)

Peter Ould

How’s it going in New Orleans?

it seems a bit one-sided of the House of Bishops to demand that the rest of the Communion engage in the Listening Process while they ignore every other line of the relevant 1998 Lambeth Resolution. And if the best defence for this weekend’s activities in Holywood is that the rite used for this ceremony wasn’t authorised, and therefore didn’t conflict with B033, then it’s really time to move on isn’t it?

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Baby Blue: A Few Thoughts
http://babybluecafe.blogspot.com/2007/09/few-thoughts.html

What really struck me more than anything from not only this “draft statement” but also from the comments from the bishops themselves, is that they are “reinventing the subreport” that was presented to the primates in Dar es Salaam and rejected.

==========

David Trimble:
The Native Americans are Circling the Caucasian Cavalry Oppressors
http://stillonpatrol.typepad.com/still_on_patrol/2007/09/the-native-amer.html

With deference to the clear words of Archbishop Mouneer Anis (see below post), this seven points draft is but another way TCGC is saying to the rest of the Anglican Communion that “we know the truth and you don’t.” While this document is yet another collection of TCGC obfuscation and politically correct phrasing, its meaning and import are clear. TCGC has no intent to admit that it has chosen to walk apart from the remainder of the Communion, but instead thinks the Communion should continue the ubiquitous “listening process”, i.e., listen to TCGC until your brain turns to mush and you agree.

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Anne Kennedy+
Communion Chaos
http://undercurrentofhostility.blogspot.com/2007/09/communion-chaos.html

Second, it occurs to me, after these many months and years of Anglican Conflict, that while all of us have been taking this seriously-pouring over documents, trying to understand the Windsor Report, the Dromontine Communique, the Dar Communique, various letters from Rowan Williams, Camp Allen Statements, and now resolutions in the HOB-these Bishops HAVE NEVER TAKEN THIS SERIOUSLY. If they’ve read any of the necessary documents, they haven’t bothered to understand them. If they’ve listened to advice and counsel from Primates and others, they bothered to HEAR. In other words, this has never been a real engagement. They’ve never been serious about the communion. Even this morning, after Matt’s careful study of Howe’s Proposal, and we, reading carefully and considering and praying for God’s will, these Bishop’s Never Considered the option before them.

==========

Dave Sims at Covenant

Not Exactly “Radical”: The Proposed HOB Statement

Americans Divided on Right to Die

It’s pretty disheartening on a first read. Keep in mind that this is a “Preliminary Draft Document.” But it seems +Howe’s proposal didn’t get much traction. The requested clarification on B033 seems to sum up the general attitude of the entire document:

We have attempted to respond to the Primates questions regarding Resolution B033. in honesty we must report that within the HOB there is disagreement as to how this resolution is to be interpreted and applied. As we live with this painful reality, conversation study and prayer will continue. We recognize the challenge our disagreement presents for some in the Communion and we respectfully ask for their patience and forbearance.

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Ruth Gledhill

Fishy Business
http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/

A source in New Orleans tells me the House of Bishops, due to finish their deliberations later today, are like a ‘shoal of fish’. The source, who is inside the meeting, says: ‘They are all swimming in the same direction. The difficulty is knowing which direction they are going in. They could suddenly move off together in a completely different direction. It is wide open still.’

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Captain Yips

Rated R for Gore and Violence
http://captainyips.typepad.com/journal/2007/09/rated-r-for-gor.html

It’s painful reading. +Howe’s plan offered a flicker of light. But at this point, absent genuine repentance and reversal of course, we should be happy for the completely stand-pat statement that seems likely to emerge.

Over the last couple of days, I’ve begun to wonder if ++Rowan Williams has not found a formula for dealing with TEC that can be unanimously accepted by all the primates, based on whether TEC can be taken at its word. I grasp at straws, maybe, because I do not want to see the Anglican Communion wrecked upon TEC’s infatuation with the Newest Thing.

============

More from Baby Blue:

Afternoon Session
http://babybluecafe.blogspot.com/2007/09/afternoon-session.html

There is something sort of surreal here about talking about Lambeth as though there isn’t anything wrong, as though it’s “business as usual.” The presentation is as though this is 1997, not 2007 and we’re all One Big Happy Family. It’s sort of weird to hear Ian talking about and there’s Gene Robinson sitting there. TEC must be pretty confident that he’s going, no matter what. Why else would they be so rude to talk about a party that he’s not invited to.

=============

Chip Webb

Words Matter: The House of Bishops Continues in Denial
http://anglicanaction.blogspot.com/2007/09/words-matter-house-of-bishops-continues.html

Arguably the strongest word in the document is “imperil,” and take two guesses as to in which context the writers use it.

Do they say that the Episcopal Church’s actions have “imperiled” the Anglican Communion? Nope.

Do they say that the Episcopal Church’s actions have “imperiled” the unity of the Episcopal Church, even with the loss of thousands of Anglicans as a result of those actions? Guess again.

Here it is:

“We pray that a way forward can be found which will bring an end to the incursions of extra-provincial bishops. These incursions imperil the Communion’s principle of honoring one another as we work together in good faith on these very difficult issues” (emphasis my own).

Two excerpts from Cherie Wetzel’s latest report for Anglicans United:

At 10:45, during their coffee break, the meeting was opened and we flocked like lemmings to the large chamber that houses the meeting.

The Writing Committee that has been charged with preparing the Statement ”“ and worked all weekend ”“ presented the Statement. It was distributed to members of the House and then read aloud by the committee. After this, there was 15 minutes of discussion at the tables (The House is organized into 20 table groups of 6-8 people that meet from one General Convention to the next.) Usually, the tables respond as a table. Today, individuals responded to the statement, making suggestions for its change. A second draft will be written this afternoon and evening and presented to the House for finalization tomorrow.

The initial draft is 4 pages single-spaced, and is a chatty narrative about the fun things done here in New Orleans, interspersed with the responses to the Dar es Salaam communiqué. Several bishops requested that the one document be split into two. The first must clearly and without equivocation, respond to the Dar questions. And the second can discuss other aspects of the meeting.

I do not know if press will be allowed back in the meeting this afternoon, and will not tell you about any other details of the statement at this point. It is not a finished document. I am constantly reminded that people read what I write in order to made decisions about whether they will stay or flee from the Episcopal Church (TEC). It is not “soup” yet, to quote Campbell’s. The direction is not clear.

[…]

So, lets be clear about how to direct your prayer time today. The Hose has several resolutions they are considering this afternoon and the Statement is a matter of high priority. Please pray that they insist on and succeed in making the clearest possible response to Dar es Salaam. All are aware of the Episcopal Fudge remarks about their previous work. And, I truly believe they want to avoid that kind of label on this document.

And please pray that they will have the patience to sit through the rest of the meeting and a spirit of generosity towards each other. They must prioritize their responses to the rest of the Communion and that will take patience and magnanimity.

The full post is here.

To see all of Cherie’s reports, go to the Anglicans United News page