+MacPherson To Primates.

Stand Firm has posted Bp. Bruce MacPherson's presentation on behalf of the "Windsor Bishops" to the Primates in Tanzania:

Your role as primates, leaders of this communion, can provide the beginning of this "reconciliation and healing" by calling us, The Episcopal Church, to a place of accountability through the discipline that is consistent with the Windsor Report. We urgently need this if we are to avoid something worse than weakened bonds of affection, namely, the destruction of Communion.

On behalf of those for whom I speak this day, we trust you will recognize that we do not represent a small minority, but rather, we represent about twenty-five percent of the dioceses of The Episcopal Church, and a growing number of people beyond these borders.

In drawing to an end, and in light of some of which has been presented today, it is important for me to bring clarification at this time, that with regard to the majority of the Windsor Bishops, this is not an issue of gender for us, as the majority of those identified as such, support the ordination of women as deacons,presbyters and bishops.

In closing, permit me to say, that as Windsor Bishops, we share a deep concern that should the General Convention of the Church elect to not participate in the Covenant process, and therefore "choose to walk apart," then we pray there will be a structure that will permit those who desire to remain "a constituent member of the Anglican Communion and in communion with the See of Canterbury," to be a part of this process. This is important to the approximately two dozen diocesan bishops that have affirmed the Windsor Report process and expressed the desire to remain in full communion with the See of Canterbury. This is important to laity and clergy across the Church who desire to do likewise.

In the words of the Windsor Report, "The real challenge of the gospel is whether we live deeply enough in the love of Christ, and care sufficiently for our joint work to bring that love to the world, that we will ‘make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" [Ephesians 4:3], or as the primates stated in 2000, "to turn from one another would be to turn away from the Cross, and indeed from serving the world which God loves and for which Jesus Christ, died." [WR157p.60]

Here's the whole thing.