General Convention Deputation, Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, 3/16/2007

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The elected Deputation of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia has, after reflecting on the recent Anglican Communion Primates meeting in Dar-es-Salaam, the following comments to make to you, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We are very troubled that the requests made of you come from only "some of" the Primates of our Communion. We fully understand how difficult it will be for you to respond when there is clearly not unanimity within the Primates as a group.

We are concerned that the requests made of you, and the modified proposal for a “Primatial Vicar”, threaten our polity.

We see significant parts of the proposed “Anglican Covenant” – which is also of deep concern to us – as reflecting the same segment of Primates, and as, likewise, threatening our polity.

We are shocked that a province of the Anglican Communion - Nigeria - is supporting state legislation targeting a sexual minority with severe and punitive actions that violate the U.N. Charter on Human Rights. We see the failure of the Primates to address this situation in Dar-es-Salaam as a linked polity-related issue.

1. The Primates Requests
   With regard to the Primates’ specific requests and proposed actions our most significant concern is that in each case the Primates appear to be asking for a province of the Communion (our own) to violate its polity in order to respond to Primatial concerns.

   The Primates’ requests directed to you, our House of Bishops, and their modified proposal for a “Primatial Vicar”, will, in seeking to solve one problem, create another, deeper problem, calling into question the polity on which both The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion had heretofore been based. Since in each case a precedent would be established we believe that any response must be very carefully crafted.

   Recommended Action: We urge you not to respond to the Primates’ requests in a way that violates the baptismal nature of our polity, and to reject any “Primatial Vicar” structure that likewise places any authority outside of our constitutional and canonical boundaries.

2. Biased nature of requests
   We are also very concerned that the Episcopal Church has been unjustly singled out. Blessings of same sex unions in the English province have, reportedly, taken place for a much longer period than in our own province and in greater volume. In addition, only one diocese in the Communion has authorized such blessings, and this diocese is in the Anglican Church of Canada, not The Episcopal Church. Yet neither of the other two Provinces are mentioned by the Primates' Communiqué.

   The Episcopal Church, gathered in General Convention in 2003, declined to authorize the blessing of same sex unions.

   Recommended Action: We urge you to ask for clarification from the Primates as to why the Episcopal Church has been singled out. We further urge you to ask the Primates to include in their request regarding the blessing of same sex unions the Church of England and the Anglican Church of Canada.

3. Primates failure to address human rights violations
   Related to #2 we are disturbed that the Primates also chose to overlook the actions of the Anglican Church of Nigeria and its Primate, Rt. Rev. Peter J. Akinola in supporting State legislation against a minority of its citizens that violates the U.N. Charter on Human Rights.

   Recommended action: We urge you to speak out on this issue. In particular we suggest that you ask the Archbishop of Canterbury why he and the other Primates have not condemned this action and failed to ask for an explanation from the primate of Nigeria, Rt. Rev. Peter Akinola, when given the opportunity in Dar-es-Salaam.

4. Proposed “Anglican Covenant”
   With regard to the Proposed “Anglican Covenant” we believe that some of its contents pose similar “polity problems”. The Anglican Communion would be so dramatically changed that it would no longer be the Anglican Communion. In addition, the content of this Covenant and the nature of the Primates requests of you together reveal a consistent pattern toward a more hierarchical, law-bound Communion relationship that we believe is antithetical to the identity of our Communion and our own province.

   Recommended Action: We are not a Confessional Church. We urge you to reject the proposed Covenant.

Clergy
Sabeth Fitzgibbons (GC ’06 Lay)
Jeffrey Lee
Stephen Moore (Chair)
Peter Strimer
Andrea McMillin Stockburger
Nigel Taber-Hamilton

Lay
Duncan Bayne
Hisako Beasley
James Church
Elizabeth Clark
Ian Thompson