The Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops will again be surrounded by prayer as they resume their deliberations on the Windsor Report this week in Camp Allen, Texas. The Rev. Catharine Phillips, chaplain to the Diocese of Chicago’s Windsor Report Task Force, is organizing her third vigil this year aimed at strengthening and uniting the church as it deals with the issues of theology, sexuality and Anglican governance. Phillips organized a prayer vigil in the Chicago diocese in January for the House of Bishops special meeting January 12 and 13 in Salt Lake City; and another for the Primates Meeting February 21 through 25 in Northern Ireland.
“It is important we all find a place of commonality, and one of the places of commonality is prayer,” said Phillips. Through email and a news story on Episcopal News Service regarding the Primates Meeting vigil, participation has grown beyond the Chicago diocese. In addition to more than two-dozen participants from Chicago’s congregations, another 20 or so took part from other congregations around the country. Among the participating dioceses were Springfield, Quincy, Indianapolis and Northern Indiana.
In an announcement sent out March 7 on Chicago’s email broadcast, Phillips said the two earlier vigils focused prayer “on a deep sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit and attention to the mind of Christ,” with the intention being that all persons could engage in prayer “regardless of where any of us stand on any particular issue facing the church.”
The vigil is set to run Friday, March 11 through Thursday, March 17. Participants have four options: praying for a particular hour each day of the seven-day meeting; praying a specific hour or two during the meeting; praying for their own bishop or “a bishop with whom you seek deeper understanding;” or praying for the meeting throughout the week People may sign up by emailing Phillips at catharinephillips@ameritech.net. As with the other two vigils, the recommended prayer is the collect on page 816 of The Book of Common Prayer: “Gracious Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. Amen.”
Phillips said she has had several emails from people who took part in the earlier vigils who said they had been moved by the experience of open-ended prayer focused on the Holy Spirit and no a specific outcome. It may seem easy and straight forward, but it’s not, she said. “I think it’s a lot harder for people to grasp,” she said when there is preferred outcome for the bishop’s discussions or direction for church action. But that may be for the best, she said, since it focuses on unity and not division. “It is really meant to be prayer that pulls us together.”
Phillips has strong faith in prayer being a force for unifying the church. Her hope for the CampAllenvigil is that the bishops meeting there “also find ways to pray together.” The prospect though of a number of bishops absenting themselves is troubling, she acknowledged.
When the bishops return home, Phillips will be looking ahead to the next conclave to address the Windsor Report: the June 18 through 29 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Nottingham, England. And she will be opening the circle then to the entire Communion.
