Last night, the bishops, meeting at Camp Allen, Texas, released three resolutions in response to the Primates’ Communique. It will take some time to digest the document, but after a quick read, it seems clear that a majority of the bishops have rejected the recommendations put to them. The first resolution affirms their desire to remain in the Anglican communion, states that only General Convention can speak for the Episcopal Church, and urges Executive Council to reject the Primates’ proposal for pastoral oversight. The second resolution very wisely, requests “face time” with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates’ Standing Committee. It is indeed odd that the Archbishop of Canterbury has not met with the Bishops or Executive Council since 2003.

The third resolution states something of the Bishops’ reasoning. I will quote from it:

“First, it violates our church law in that it would call for a delegation of primatial authority not permissible under our Canons and a compromise of our autonomy as a Church not permissible under our Constitution.Second, it fundamentally changes the character of the Windsor process and the covenant design process in which we thought all the Anglican Churches were participating together.

Third, it violates our founding principles as The Episcopal Church following our own liberation from colonialism and the beginning of a life independent of the Church of England.

Fourth, it is a very serious departure from our English Reformation heritage. It abandons the generous orthodoxy of our Prayer Book tradition. It sacrifices the emancipation of the laity for the exclusive leadership of high-ranking Bishops. And, for the first time since our separation from the papacy in the 16th century, it replaces the local governance of the Church by its own people with the decisions of a distant and unaccountable group of prelates.

Most important of all it is spiritually unsound. The pastoral scheme encourages one of the worst tendencies of our Western culture, which is to break relationships when we find them difficult instead of doing the hard work necessary to repair them and be instruments of reconciliation. The real cultural phenomenon that threatens the spiritual life of our people, including marriage and family life, is the ease with which we choose to break our relationships and the vows that established them rather than seek the transformative power of the Gospel in them. We cannot accept what would be injurious to this Church and could well lead to its permanent division.”

In the coming days, we will hear more about the resolutions, about the internal discussions that led to the resolutions, and a great deal about the response by all of the parties who make it their business to respond to such things. I will be very interested to hear what Bishop Henderson has to say about all of this. In general, though, I am greatly heartened by the bishops’ stance. They have reaffirmed their desire to remain in the Anglican Communion but they have also expressed themselves unwilling to compromise certain basic principles of our church, including this one: “it sacrifices the emancipation of the laity for the exclusive leadership of high-ranking bishops.” You may read the entire press release here