CEEC031113 Gene Robinson

NEWS RELEASE FROM

CHURCH OF ENGLAND EVANGELICAL COUNCIL

13 NOVEMBER 2003

The Church of England Evangelical Council meeting at Hoddesdon on 12 November 2003 resolved that:

We believe that the election and consecration as a bishop of a man in a non-celibate homosexual relationship is wrong, according to the witness of holy scripture and the consistent practice of the universal church as affirmed in Lambeth 1.10.

We cannot accept Canon Gene Robinson as bishop.

We regard the bishops who consecrated him as having put themselves by this defiant action out of fellowship with the majority of the Anglican Communion.

We note with concern that this was done in contradiction to the statement that the presiding bishop of ECUSA signed with his fellow primates.

As a result:

1. We express our support for all those within ECUSA who remain loyal to biblical teaching on marriage, sexual ethics and holiness of life.

2. We encourage the Archbishop of Canterbury urgently to fulfill the pledge given at the Primates' meeting in October 2003 to provide orthodox bishops, acceptable to these faithful Anglicans, with appropriate changes to episcopal jurisdiction and structures to support mission and ministry.

3. We welcome the many statements from Global Anglicanism which have also challenged ECUSA's actions. We particularly wish to encourage Anglicans who find themselves under pressure because of ECUSA's decisions, especially those in interfaith contexts and already in the forefront of fighting against AIDS, poverty and injustice. We promise to support them in prayer and practical ways as they break communion with the leadership of ECUSA and suffer the consequences in terms of fellowship and resources.

4. We ask the English House of Bishops to indicate whether Canon Robinson and the consecrating bishops will or will not be acceptable if they seek to undertake episcopal ministry in the Church of England in word or sacrament.

Contacts:

Ven Dr Paul Gardner 01392-425432

Revd N Wynne-Jones 0207-417-5851

The Lambeth Conference Resolution on Human Sexuality

SECTION I RESOLUTIONS
Resolution 1.10

Human Sexuality

This Conference:

a. commends to the Church the subsection report on human sexuality;

b. in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage;

c. recognises that there are among us persons who experience themselves as having a homosexual orientation. Many of these are members of the Church and are seeking the pastoral care, moral direction of the Church, and God's transforming power for the living of their lives and the ordering of relationships. We commit ourselves to listen to the experience of homosexual persons and we wish to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ;

d. while rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture, calls on all our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals, violence within marriage and any trivialisation and commercialisation of sex;

e. cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions;

f. requests the Primates and the ACC to establish a means of monitoring the work done on the subject of human sexuality in the Communion and to share statements and resources among us;

g. notes the significance of the Kuala Lumpur Statement on Human Sexuality and the concerns expressed in resolutions IV.26, V.1, V.10, V.23 and V.35 on the authority of Scripture in matters of marriage and sexuality and asks the Primates and the ACC to include them in their monitoring process.