Responses.

TitusOneNine is gathering together responses to the Primates' communique (Update: Kendall has gathered many more responses). Among them are:

• Katherine Jefferts-Schori (Presiding Bishop)
  The Episcopal Church has been asked to consider the wider body of the Anglican Communion and its needs. Our own Church has in recent years tended to focus on the suffering of one portion of the body, particularly those who feel that justice demands the full recognition and celebration of the gifts of gay and lesbian Christians. That focus has been seen in some other parts of the global Church, as inappropriate, especially as it has been felt to be a dismissal of traditional understandings of sexual morality. Both parties hold positions that can be defended by appeal to our Anglican sources of authority - scripture, tradition, and reason - but each finds it very difficult to understand and embrace the other. What is being asked of both parties is a season of fasting - from authorizing rites for blessing same-sex unions and consecrating bishops in such unions on the one hand, and from transgressing traditional diocesan boundaries on the other.
• Robert Duncan (Bishop of Pittsburgh, Moderator of the Anglican Communion Network) This document recognized the large number of bishops, clergy, and people who are completely with the received teaching of the Communion. We have asked for oversight from the Primates and at this meeting, I reaffirmed this request. This document goes a very long way towards providing that. The document recognizes that there are some in the Episcopal Church who for theological reasons and for ecclesiological reasons cannot recognize Katharine Jefferts Schori as our primate. The document recognizes the legitimacy of our request of opening a space between the two sides while the covenant process moves forward. It is a very acceptable result.
  What I think I really want to say is that I am cautiously optimistic. Anglicanism, as represented by the Primates at this meeting, has stood with the faith once delivered. We are in the midst of a reformation, and still have much work ahead for us. (From Church of England Newspaper interview)
• Neil Alexander (Bishop of Atlanta)
  
• Mark Sisk (Bishop of New York)
  
• Mark Andrus (Bishop of California)
  
• Jack Iker (Bishop of Ft. Worth)
  
• Henry Orombi (Archbishop of Uganda) The Primates Communiqué from our last meeting in 2005 in Dromatine, Northern Ireland, put in place several recommendations in order for trust to be restored within the Communion, which TEC was supposed to address at its General Convention in June of 2006. While TEC may have done the best they could at the time, it was not good enough. We need reassurance that they are really serious. So, we have asked for two simple things before 30th September.
  
  1. The House of Bishops of TEC needs to make an unequivocal common covenant that the bishops will not authorise any Rite of Blessing for same-sex unions in their dioceses or through General Convention
  2. The House of Bishops of TEC needs to make a statement that all its members will definitely NOT consent to the consecration of any person as a Bishop who is living in a same-sex union
  
  If they do not give these assurances, it will have “consequences for the full participation of [their] Church in the life of the [Anglican] Communion.” TEC’s Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, signed this Communiqué. We pray that she will take it more seriously than her predecessor did when he signed our Communiqués but proceeded to denounce and violate them.