July 2, 2007
By Mary Frances Schjonberg

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico – House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson told more than 275 people gathered June 30 in the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande to both be prepared and to stay calm amid the current tensions in the diocese, the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

"Keep your eyes on the prize, which is the reconciliation of the world through Jesus Christ, whom we love more than life itself," Anderson told the meeting at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church. "And keep calm."

People from 21 of the diocese's 60 congregations attended the afternoon meeting sponsored by Episcopalians for the Future in the Diocese of the Rio Grande, which included presentations by Anderson and her chancellor, Sally Johnson, and a question-and-answer period. Those sessions were interspersed with hymns, prayers and a period of silent reflection.

One attendee, Dennis Prichard, the bishop's warden at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Belen, New Mexico, said afterward that if Episcopalians heeded Anderson's reminder of Jesus' call for people to love one another "we would not be in the place we're in."

The Rev. Tom Woodward, a retired Episcopal priest who attends St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Santa Fe where he serves a treasurer, called the meeting a "rallying point" and a chance for people to share the "basic joy of being Episcopalians and not have to apologize for it."

Anderson drew applause when she promised that "the leadership of the Episcopal Church will never leave you alone, remember that."

At the same time, she urged, "when Bishop Steenson tells you that he is not going to remove the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande out of the Episcopal Church, try to believe that."

Anderson also appealed specifically to gays and lesbians in the audience, asking them "to not leave this Church."

"Hang in there with us," she said. "We're going to get this right."

The diocese's leadership and a handful of its congregations have opposed recent decisions by the Episcopal Church. During a planning retreat in El Paso, Texas, May 18-19, members of the Standing Committee/Trustees and the Council of the diocese voted 17-1 to ask Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the House of Bishops and the Episcopal Church's Executive Council "to approve the pastoral approach commended by the Primates" and to participate in it if it becomes available.

"We believe this is the best available option to keep our congregations together in the months ahead," Rio Grande Bishop Jeffrey N. Steenson wrote in a letter to diocesan clergy following the meeting.

At the time of the El Paso meeting, the House of Bishops had already said that the scheme "would be injurious to The Episcopal Church" and urged the Executive Council to refuse to participate in it. In June, the Executive Council did just that and "respectfully request[ed] the Presiding Bishop to decline as well."

At their El Paso meeting in May, the Rio Grande leadership unanimously passed a resolution that would allow a congregation "which is strongly considering departing from the Diocese and the Episcopal Church temporarily to withdraw from the life of the diocese for a season of discernment while maintaining membership in the Diocese of the Rio Grande and the Episcopal Church."

Both during the June 30 meeting and again the next day during an adult-education discussion at St. Michael and all Angels, Anderson and Johnson urged Episcopalians who are opposed to decisions made by Rio Grande's leadership to make their voices heard by means of building coalitions in the diocese to influence elections and actions at convention. One member of the audience said that "we cannot take effective action … because we are out-numbered."

Johnson said that while the wider Episcopal Church will support faithful Episcopalians in such places as the Rio Grande, "folks on the ground" must be ready to take the initiative and not expect the Episcopal Church leadership to file lawsuits. She added that she was not advocating litigation, saying it is "not the most Christian way to decide things. However, she said, "sometimes we need the assistance of the secular courts to enforce our canons."

At the July 1 session, Anderson praised the people of the diocese who have stepped forward to make their voices heard in a way that has not alienated them from the rest of the diocese.

"I will tell your story to other people in other dioceses where there is angst over the diocesan leadership," she said.

Anderson told the attendees that their desire to remain in the Episcopal Church reflects the majority view in the Church, despite what they might be being told from diocesan leaders. She said that the majority in roughly 45 of the Church's 7,500 congregations have decided to leave.

Anderson urged the June 30 attendees to strike a balance between obsessing about the diocese's future and being caught "flat-footed" if major changes are instituted.

"To some degree, we can't get ahead of what we know" right now, she said.

She also reminded the audience that the Anglican and Episcopal churches were born in dissent.

"We are steeped in it, we teethed on it," she said, recalling debates over whether the Episcopal Church would have bishops, whether Morning Prayer or Eucharist is the proper way to worship on Sunday, whether priests should wear chasubles, whether people of color were full and equal members of the church, whether the church should participate in boycotts to bring an end to apartheid and whether women should be ordained.

Episcopalians disagree because "our faith very matters to us; you might say we take our baptism seriously."

Johnson gave the audience a brief overview of Episcopal Church canonical law, especially as it pertains to how dioceses and congregations are created and become part of the Episcopal Church – and how they leave.

"Individuals join and leave the Episcopal Church, congregations do not," Johnson said, explaining that parishes are created and dissolved by diocesan convention just as only General Convention can create or dissolve a diocese, or allow a diocese to leave.

In addition, "we are pretty clear about who owns the property in the Episcopal Church," Johnson said, adding that the rules apply to both "conservative" and "liberal" congregations. "It's held in trust for the diocese and the Episcopal Church."

Most of the Church's canons are "neutral," Johnson said, explaining that they are neither good nor bad; they simply are what they are. Canon law can and does change, she said, but it must be followed until and unless it is changed by General Convention.

"There's a continual, growing adaptation of the structures of the church to what we are and who we are today," she said.

While "there's nothing wrong with trying to find a way to live together in the tension," Johnson said, that way cannot run contrary to canon law.

In her closing remarks on July 1, Anderson said a small but loud number of people are putting the Episcopal Church in the news and she urged her listeners to put that attention to work.

"Turn it around," she said. "You can use it as an evangelism tool."

The Diocese of the Rio Grande comprises about 15,100 Episcopalians worshipping in 60 congregations in New Mexico and west Texas.

Episcopal News Service
The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.