Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury, has issued his much-awaited response to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church: “Communion, Covenant, and our Anglican Future.” Although it’s not as lengthy as Pope Benedict’s recent encyclical, it’s sure to be parsed almost as carefully and debated nearly with the same intensity by Anglicans throughout the world. The letter is worthy of such scrutiny: As he has done so often in the past, Archbishop Williams has given us both a substantively theological read of the present moment and a sound and hopeful way forward for the Anglican Communion.

For those keeping score, the leadership of the Episcopal Church—including the Presiding Bishop, the president of the House of Deputies, and the church’s chief ecumenical officer—had attempted to argue that the actions of their General Convention didn’t go against the repeated requests of the wider…

We have had a few requests for an analysis of how our bishops voted on resolutions D025 and C056 at General Convention 2009. The best list seems to be this chart in PDF from the Lent & Beyond prayer blog.

Some of you have indicated plans to initiate a letter writing campaign to the bishops and have asked for assistance in obtaining addresses. While one could beg 815 to provide addresses, the consensus here is that the best source of address information for both bishops and deputies of General Convention is this page maintained by Dr. Louie Crew.

I received this note yesterday from a friend and parishioner and share it with her permission. Nanette Frantz is someone Fr. Dan Martins and I know well. She served on my discernment committee for the priesthood and, in addition to sharing worship, we sit side by side each week reading Scripture together in a Disciple Bible Study called "Jesus in the Gospels." For clarity, I must report that Nanette represents a strong and clear voice within our parish, but our melody includes multiple lines of harmony. In the last week, I have spent much time in dialogue with persons experiencing profound angst at the actions of General Convention, and usually their sentences are filled with words like "hypocrisy" that they fit snugly next to sentences expressing compassion for gay persons. And I have been taught well by others how painful it is for them to see their clergy and bishop…