Episcopal Church "not going backward, but willing to pause" in its consideration of full inclusion of lesbian and gay persons

At Grace Cathedral, Jefferts Schori told the standing-room-only forum audience that the House of Bishops reiterated the stances of the General Convention, "not going backward, but willing to pause" in its consideration of full inclusion of lesbian and gay persons in the life and ministries of the Episcopal Church. "We reiterated our understanding that all gay and lesbian persons" are deserving "of the fullest regard of the Church," she said.

"We live in the hope that there will be full inclusion," she told reporters in a news conference before the forum talk, calling anything less "not lamentable, but egregious."

Bishop Marc Handley Andrus of the San Francisco-based Diocese of California concurred with Jefferts Schori. He also pointed to the Episcopal Church's commitment to "global flourishing" to counter conditions of severe poverty, and underscored the importance of New Orleans and its post-hurricane rebuilding work "as a just place" as the venue for the recent bishops' meeting.

Moderating the forum, Grace Cathedral Dean Alan Jones asked the bishops why media reports varied so significantly in their coverage of the bishops' meeting. The New York Times coverage, for example, has been critiqued as heavily skewed toward views and voices of dissident clergy, while the Associated Press was said to have captured more fully the compromise measure of "restraint."

The range of coverage "reflects the House" itself, Jefferts Schori said, pointing to the "variety of opinions reflected" in both the membership and its September 25 statement.

Asked by Jones to bring "a sense of proportion" to the current conflict, the Presiding Bishop cited reports that of the Episcopal Church's more than 7,600 congregations, some 45-60 of those have experienced votes by a majority of parishioners to affiliate with an overseas Anglican diocese. "That is well under 1 percent" of total congregations, and many of those continue in name and mission as Episcopal congregations within their dioceses, Jefferts Schori said.

Jones further reported that active diocesan bishops of some five of the Episcopal Church's 110 total dioceses participated in a September 25-28 "Common Cause Partnership" meeting in Pittsburgh seeking a realigned structure for Anglicanism in North America.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, meanwhile, has affirmed previously that he will not recognize in North America Anglican Provinces other than the U.S.-based Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Mexico.

Primates and other groups within a number of the Anglican Communion's 38 member Provinces are in solidarity with the positions of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, Jefferts Schori added. She further cited international learning that is occurring around the Episcopal Church's baptismal covenant to "respect the dignity" of all people. A similar covenant is not in place in the vast majority of Anglican Provinces, the Presiding Bishop said.

Laity should be more widely involved in international conversations about the shape and direction of Anglicanism, said Andrus, bishop of the California diocese since 2006 and previously bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Alabama. More.