Anaheim Statement Continues to Gain Supporters

From The Living Church-

The Anaheim Statement endorsed by 34 bishops at the close of the 76th General Convention in Anaheim, Calif., has added two more bishops to its list of supporters.

The Rt. Rev. Charles E. Jenkins, III, Bishop of Louisiana, and the Rt. Rev. Harry W. Shipps, retired Bishop of Georgia, have endorsed the letter affirming their loyalty to the Anglican Communion in the wake of the adoption of resolutions C056 and D025 ending the moratoria forbidding the consecration of partnered gay clergy as bishops and the authorization of rites for the blessing of same-sex unions.

However, Bishop Jenkins also was one of the bishops who voted against D025 but in favor of C056. He later said he voted for C056 because his colleagues had responded well to his plea for graciousness. “I felt I was honor-bound to vote for it because these bishops had done what I had asked them to do," he said. " I felt that the process was a ray of hope for The Episcopal Church.”

In a series of letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury and primates of the Anglican Communion written at the close of General Convention, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the President of the House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson have disputed the characterization of the adoption of the two resolutions as having ended the moratoria or a “walking apart” by the Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion.

Speaking to the media on July 18 Bishop Jefferts Schori stated the votes were a “truthful attempt to deepen relationships” with the wider Anglican Communion. She added that “in 2009” there are “more and deeper relationships with parts of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion than five or 10 years ago.”

Overseas Anglicans, however, have so far not been persuaded by the Presiding Bishop’s explanation. On July 27, Archbishop of Canterbury released his reflections on the General Convention, voicing a sharply critical view of the votes. Archbishop Williams also took note of the Anaheim Statement, noting that a “significant minority of bishops” had “clearly expressed its intention to remain with the consensus of the Communion” on the issues of human sexuality and the moratoria.


More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/8/24/anaheim-statement-continues-to-gain-supporters