My Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ

The Windsor Report of the Lambeth Commission was published on 18 October. To the disappointment of some, it made no great and dramatic pronouncements on human sexuality, but rather, as was its brief, focussed on the issue of division within the church and the challenge of restoring the bonds of unity. Although it is a long report it deserves careful reading for it has much to say to us.

It opens with the words "God has unveiled, in Jesus Christ, his glorious plan for the rescue of the whole created order from all that defaces, corrupts and destroys it." Those words, for them, set the context for understanding why God has called into being the church and how we are to understand our identity and calling. Referring to the letter to the Ephesians, the Report goes on to say:-

" ... God's people are to be, through the work of the Spirit, an anticipatory sign of God's healing and restorative future for the world. Those who, despite their own sinfulness, are saved by grace through their faith in God's gospel (2: 1-10) are to live as a united family across traditional ethnic and other boundaries (2: 11-22), and so are to reveal the many-splendoured wisdom of the one true God to the hostile and divisive powers of the world (3: 9-10) as they explore and celebrate the astonishing breadth of God's love made known through Christ dwelling in their hearts (3: 14-21). The redeemed unity which is God's will for the whole creation is to be lived out within the life of the church as, through its various God-given ministries, it is built up as the Body of Christ and grows to maturity not least through speaking the truth in love (1:10, 22-23; 4: 1-6)."

Those words form the basis of the Report's insistence that we are a divine creation called, in Christ, into a common unity (community) with God and with each other. The unity of the church and the communion of its members with one another is, therefore, rooted in the divine purposes of God and is at the heart of the church's mission. Unity is central to gospel, and must be cherished and preserved. Citing the church in Corinth the report says:-

"Whatever problems there are in the community - and Corinth had more than its fair share, from personality cults and social divisions to immorality and unbelief - Paul begins by addressing them as those who are, despite some outward appearances, already set apart by and for the love of God. This does not hold him back from administering severe discipline ..., but is held within the larger context of pastoral and reconciling intent. At the climax of this letter, after dealing with all these problems, we find Paul's longest exposition of what it means to live as the Body of Christ, united in diversity (ch 12), with that unity characterised not by mechanistic or formal structure but by that all-demanding and all-fulfilling virtue which the early Christians called agape, love."

It is this commitment to unity that forms the basis of the recommendations of the Report. It simply identified some of the actions that have contributed to disunity, called for those involved to affirm their desire to remain in communion and to express their regret for the damage those actions caused, and asked that, until the matter can be resolved, a moratorium be placed on any further similar actions. The Commission passed no judgement on any action outside of its impact on the unity of the church. The Report, therefore, did not deal with the question of clergy in committed same sex relationships or the blessing of same sex relationships. It simply said that the way that those decisions were taken had damaged the fragile fabric of our unity. But it also recognised that the hostile reactions of many to those decisions - which Archbishop Eames said introduced "... a degree of harshness and a lack of charity which is new to Anglicanism" - had been equally damaging of our unity.

In other words, what the Commission has done is to set aside, for the moment, the issues that are tearing us apart in order to ask a more fundamental question: "Do we really want to remain in communion with one another?" If so, the Report says, we need a clearer understanding of what it means to be in communion with each other and how our unity is to be protected. It suggests that we need a "... common Anglican Covenant which would make explicit and forceful the loyalty and bonds of affection" which would govern our relationship together. The starting point, though, must be a real desire on the part of all to remain in communion with one another, and that needs to be expressed in the moratorium on divisive actions and the expression of regret for such actions.

The final paragraph of the Report says:-

"There remains a very real danger that we will not choose to walk together. Should the call to halt and find ways of continuing in our present communion not be heeded, then we shall have to begin to learn to walk apart.".... 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 (Eph 4:3). As the primates stated in 2000, 'to turn away 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."

The initial responses to the Report from those embroiled in the conflict are not encouraging. All seem more concerned to defend the "rightness" of their words and actions than to take the steps asked of them for the sake of unity. At this stage none believe they have done anything to warrant an apology or an expression of regret. And that might mean that we will end up turning away from each other, fail to be a sign of God's healing, restorative and uniting love in the world, and choose to walk apart.

Pray for the Anglican Communion, that we may be held united in Christ,

+Brian

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