Integrity's Response to The Windsor Report

Following discussion of the Windsor Report at the regular board meeting of Integrity Alabama on October 24, 2004, the official preliminary response from Integrity USA dated October 18th was adopted as our response to said report. 

We, the board members of Integrity Alabama, remain fully committed to seeking full inclusion of all persons in the life and ministries of The Worldwide Anglican Communion, the ECUSA, the Diocese of Alabama and our individual parishes.  We are grateful for resolutions passed at two Diocesan Conventions supporting dialog on these issues. Recognizing that the Diocese of Alabama is a microcosm of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, we reaffirm our willingness to remain at the table as we work through our differences.  

+ + +

INTEGRITY USA
18 October 2004
www.integrityusa.org
1718 M Street NW, PMB 148
Washington, DC 20036
800-462-9498
info@integrityusa.org

Integrity thanks the Lambeth Commission on Communion for the thorough and balanced report it released today.   Like the rest of the Anglican Communion, we will be studying the principles it articulates and discussing the recommendations it makes.   However, we have a few preliminary responses and remarks that we would like to share.

We are grateful that the report recognizes that serious, Communion-wide dialog on the ordination of gay and lesbian persons and the blessing of same-sex relationships has not occurred.   We look forward to the development of a process that will enable true dialog on these issues.   We hope that such conversation will not only be ABOUT homosexuality, but WITH gay and lesbian Anglicans.   The members of Integrity USA will gladly make ourselves available to share our faith stories with our sisters and brothers throughout the Communion, as we have been doing for the past thirty years.

We stand with the bishops of the Episcopal Church who participated in the consecration of the Bishop of New Hampshire and who have authorized rites for blessing same-sex relationships for use in their dioceses.   While being cognizant of the pain felt by some our brothers and sisters in other provinces, we remain convinced that these actions were, and are, in keeping with the Gospel.   We hope that these bishops will also be part of a Communion-wide dialog on these issues-explaining the theological reasons for their positions.

We also stand with Bishop Gene Robinson himself who was elected, confirmed, and consecrated in accordance with canon law and a Spirit-led process in the Diocese of New Hampshire.   We are confident that, as there is further consideration of the recommendations in the Windsor Report, Bishop Robinson will not be excluded from the councils of the Communion.

Overall it seems to us that the report is a call to an earnest, Communion-wide discernment process about the nature of the Gospel and the nature of the Church given the contexts of our varied interpretations of the Scriptures, our differing approaches to Anglican tradition, and the complex realities in which the various provinces of the Communion live and move and have their being.   Clearly it is essential that this conversation occurs, and in such a manner that all the people of God who are members of this Communion can fully participate.

Finally, we would like to thank Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold for his initial statement on the Windsor Report-affirming the presence and positive contribution of gay and lesbian persons to every aspect of the life of our church and in all orders of ministry.     

The Reverend Susan Russell, President
president@integrityusa.org
714-356-5718 (mobile)
626-583-2740 (office)

John Clinton Bradley, Director of Communications
johnclint@integrityusa.org
585-313-1059 (mobile)
585-242-7687 (home office)