Letter to the Virginia Deputation
from the Rector of Pohick Church

June 8, 2006

Dear Bishop Lee, Bishop Jones and Members of the Virginia Deputation,

Let me begin by saying that we at Pohick Church will be offering up our prayers for you and your fellow bishops and deputies as you depart for General Convention this weekend. After three years of divisiveness within the Anglican Communion and ECUSA, as well as within our own diocese and parishes, we are especially hopeful that this General Convention will usher in a period of healing so that we can once again focus on our larger Christian mission to the world.

In this regard, I was heartened by tone of “The Report of the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.” While this report clearly reveals the competing viewpoints of the drafting committee members, I nevertheless believe it is a good starting point for General Convention to begin thinking about the Episcopal Church’s place within the larger Anglican Communion.

In connection with this, I wanted to share an observation that I hope may be constructive for the drafting of the final resolutions emanating from this report. The observation concerns the process of dialogue that the report recommends, a process that many of us believe is important to moving beyond the current impasse.

Here, within any dialogue, communication experts recommend that one party restate in his or her own words what the other has said. In part, this allows the first party to feel that the second respects what he or she has expressed, while not necessarily agreeing with it. This is a good practice and, indeed, I drill my young couples in it as part of their premarital counseling.

Yet this basic dialogue technique is exactly what the last two General Conventions have not employed with respect to the Anglican Communion’s pronouncements on human sexuality. Regarding these, there is one thing that can be stated with confidence: that the 1998 Lambeth Conference Resolution I.10 represents the Anglican Communion’s present teaching on human sexuality. Indeed, this resolution has been so overwhelmingly endorsed by all four Instruments of Unity that Archbishop Williams has indicated that the topic of human sexuality will not be on the agenda of the 2008 Conference.

Despite this fact, when one turns to the published proceedings of the last two General Conventions, Resolution I.10 is never even mentioned in any approved Convention resolution or majority report.

This fact is even more astounding when it is recognized that at the 73rd General Convention—the one on the heels of Lambeth 1998—the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music was charged with presenting a report on the potential production of liturgies for the blessing of same-sex relations. Despite the then-recent promulgation of Resolution I.10, not one of the many authors writing within that report ever referenced this resolution—even to disagree with it! Any outsider to the larger proceedings would conclude from the actions of that and the following General Convention that Resolution I.10 did not even exist.

Another example of this came closer to home in our own recent Diocesan Council. At the Saturday morning proceedings, you may recall, a delegate sought to amend R-17s to contain a “whereas clause” simply recognizing (not endorsing) the position of Resolution I.10 within the Anglican Communion. Yet the amendment was defeated.

While it is clear that not every bishop or deputy to General Convention (or Council delegate) agrees with Resolution I.10, I believe that any competent therapist would identify the repeated omission of this important text as an extreme example of institutional denial. Moreover, I am confident that the said therapist would bring this to the party’s attention, recommending that the party restate (though not necessarily endorse) what the other party has said.

At a minimum, this is what I think the 75th General Convention needs to do with respect to Lambeth Resolution I.10.

Along these lines, I was glad to see that the Special Commission’s Report does partially break this pattern of denial and make an (albeit passing) reference to Resolution I.10, which is also further mentioned in its appendix. Yet, aside from proposed Resolution A165’s latching onto the “listening” clause of the Lambeth document, none of the submitted resolutions references Resolution I.10 in its totality. Again, I believe a therapist would identify this as an example of “hearing what you want to hear” from the other, while ignoring the rest.

I would therefore urge you to work for the passage of a resolution that recognizes (though does not necessarily endorse, although I would personally) the totality of Resolution I.10, as well as its standing within the Anglican Communion (perhaps joining the Primates in acknowledging that “the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10 . . . should command respect as the position overwhelmingly adopted by the bishops of the Anglican Communion”; see “Special Report,” page 36, 10.b).

Short of such a resolution, I believe that many within the Anglican Communion would (rightly) see any further calls for “dialogue” or “listening” from General Convention to be disingenuous.

Beyond seeking this long-overdue recognition, I would join with former Archbishop Carey, who, in his recent remarks at VTS about the upcoming General Convention, expressed his hope that in dealing with the requests of the Primates and the Windsor Report, the issues not be “fudged” nor the response “so ambiguous that the situation is made far worse” (see complete text at http://www.pohick.org/carey.html).

While the bishops and deputies of both houses will need to wrestle over the appropriate language, I would hope that you would take whatever steps necessary to keep our province as full members of the Anglican Communion, mindful especially of our own diocesan resolutions in this regard, as well as the Bishop of Exeter’s recent words to the House of Bishops about the gravity of the present situation.

More than three hundred years ago, the congregation that would eventually become known as Pohick Church was founded as a mission of the Church of England in the Colony of Virginia. Since that time, our parishioners have survived many devastating wars, divisive controversies, and periods of prolonged economic hardship. We hope that, like our forebears, we too will be able to meet the challenges of our times and persevere in our Christian mission, especially during this period of remarkable population growth in Southern Fairfax County.

By working to restore the unity of the Church at this General Convention, you will help us to fulfill this hope and further our mission. And so, again, please know that our hopes and our prayers will be with you in the days ahead.

Faithfully,

The Reverend Donald D. Binder, PhD
Rector, Pohick Church