It asks parties on both sides of the sexuality controversy within the Anglican Communion to express their regret for the ways in which their actions have harmed others.

The document specifically calls on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to put into effect a moratorium on electing and consecrating non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy as bishops and on same-gender blessings. And it asks conservative bishops to cease crossing jurisdictional boundaries to provide episcopal oversight to dissenting congregations.

In a statement in response, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold called for careful and patient reading of the full report. In his own statement, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams echoed Griswold’s concern about the report’s careful reception.

“I hope, too, that everyone with the well-being of our communion at heart will now take time to study the report -- and to pray and reflect upon its proposals, which … offer neither easy nor simple solutions to real and demanding challenges,” Williams said. “If we are serious about meeting those challenges, as I know we are, then we have to do all we can to continue to travel this road together.”

Try to rebuild trust

The 17-member commission that produced the report, led by the primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Robin Eames, was asked specifically to examine and report on ways in which the 38 Anglican and Episcopal provinces can “relate to one another in situations where the ecclesiastical authorities of one province feel unable to maintain the fullness of communion with another part of the Anglican Communion.”

The 93-page report is published in four sections, each dealing with different aspects of the nature of communion. It recognizes the hurt and alienation that many Anglicans feel following the consecration of a gay bishop in the Episcopal church and the blessing of same-gender relationships in both Canada and the U.S. It calls upon “all the bishops concerned ... to work tirelessly to rebuild the trust which has been lost.”

The report concludes that all parties to the current dispute should “seek ways of reconciliation and to heal our divisions,” and suggests the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of New Westminster [in Canada] could “begin to speak with the communion in a way that would foster reconciliation.”

Eames said that the churches of the Anglican Communion belong together in common mission for the sake of the gospel. “We believe that it was important to look for healing not division; pastoral reconciliation and not punishment.”

Eames said the report offered no easy solution. “It is an honest and frank expression of the position in which we find ourselves as a communion.”

Discussion begins

The commission members, drawn from around the globe, included one American -- Bishop Mark Dyer, retired bishop of the Diocese of Bethlehem, Pa., and now professor of pastoral theology at Virginia Theological Seminary.

Discussion of the report began immediately by the Standing Committees of the Primates and the Anglican Consultative Council in London. The report will be presented next to the Primates’ Meeting in Newcastle, Ireland, Feb. 21-26 and finally at the Anglican Consultative Council -- the communion’s chief legislative body, comprising more than 100 bishops, clergy and lay representatives -- in Nottingham, England, in June.

Here in the United States, the House of Bishops has called for a special meeting in Salt Lake City Jan. 12-13 to prepare its reaction. But prior to that, the Executive Council, composed of bishops, clergy and laity, will discuss it in Boise, Idaho, Nov. 1-4.

There are several pages of recommendations in the document. It calls for a new, enhanced role for the archbishop of Canterbury, arguing that he “must not be regarded as a figurehead, but as the central focus of both unity and mission” for Anglicans, with authority to articulate the mind of the communion. It says the archbishop has the right to call, or not to call, to the Primates Meeting and the worldwide Lambeth Conference of bishops whomsoever he believes appropriate.

It recommends a Council of Advice, whose members possess knowledge of the life of the communion, to provide support for the archbishop of Canterbury when difficult decisions are required.

It recommends also that each national church be asked to adopt a common Anglican covenant and that each authorize its primate or presiding bishop to sign and promise to adhere to its terms.

The report invites the Episcopal Church formally to express its regret that “the proper constraints of the bonds of affection” were breached in the events surrounding the consent and consecration last year of Bishop Gene Robinson in the Diocese of New Hampshire.

Pending such expressions of regret, those who participated in his consecration should considering withdrawing from representative functions in the Anglican Communion, the report suggests. “We urge this in order to create the space necessary to enable the healing of the communion.”

It urges all provinces engaged in studying the blessing of same-sex unions to engage the communion in continuing study of the biblical and theological rationale calls both for and against such unions.

But it calls upon all bishops to honor the Primates Pastoral Letter (May 2003) by ceasing development of public rites for such blessings. “The question of public rites for the blessing of same-sex unions is still a cause of potentially divisive controversy,” it states.

Restores diocesan authority

The report rejects the idea of parallel jurisdictions and asks bishops who have intervened in other jurisdictions without permission to “express regret for the consequences of their actions ... affirm their desire to remain in the communion ... effect a moratorium on any further interventions ... [and] seek an accommodation with the bishops of the dioceses whose parishes they have taken into their own care.”

Only in situations where there has been an extreme breach of trust, and as a last resort, does the report commend a conditional and temporary provision of delegated pastoral oversight by another bishop for those who dissent from their own diocesan bishop.
“While the temporary provision of pastoral oversight is in place, there must also be a mutually agreed commitment to effecting reconciliation,” it states.

It recommends the Primates’ Standing Committee find “practical ways” to institute the “listening” process on same-gender relationships that the 1998 Lambeth Conference recommended.