"Nature is producing weapons of mass destruction," Church of Bangladesh Moderator Michael Baroi told the bishops' regular Fall meeting, pointing to the similarly devastating effects of the past year's South Asian tsunami, flooding in India and China, typhoons in Taiwan, and Gulf Coast hurricanes.

"You as leaders of the Episcopal Church have the power to pursue government leaders to do something about this," Baroi said, adding that without immediate action to stem global warming, "Bangladesh will be underwater in a few decades."

Baroi empathized with Louisiana, Mississippi and Central Gulf Coast bishops who brought the meeting first-hand accounts of Hurricane Katrina's devastation -- even as bishops of the dioceses of Texas and Western Louisiana were home bracing for Hurricane Rita's landfall.

The bishops' meeting -- and the concurrent spouses' gathering -- rallied quickly behind the integrated long-term aid and partnership strategy presented by Episcopal Relief and Development, Episcopal Migration Ministries, and the Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies, George Packard (full
information: www.episcopalchurch.org/help). 

Further condolences and perspectives were offered by Anglican Archbishop Andrew Hutchison of Canada, Central Africa's Archbishop Emeritus Khotso Makhulu, and Bishop Michael Nutall of Southern Africa. Each offered reflections, at the invitation of Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, from a different province of the Anglican Communion.

Bangladesh's Baroi and Canada's Hutchison, like Griswold, are among the Communion's current 38 primates, or top-ranking leaders -- as was Central Africa's Makhulu before his retirement. Each praised U.S. bishops who, earlier in the meeting, described the welcome they received in Africa during recent medical-mission and poverty-relief visits. "They need your care and love," Baroi said. "Go a mile to see that this communion is not broken; this is a gift to us from God."

Respecting diversity

Baroi said the communion shared by Anglicans remains broad enough to include respectful disagreements. He said his views of human sexuality differ from those that affirm an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire and the blessing of same-sex unions in the Canadian Diocese of New Westminster. "I disagree with you," he said, "but that doesn't mean I have no respect for you. I have every respect for you."

A Muslim-majority population of 140 million, in which Christians number 0.3 percent, is the context in which Bangladesh's Anglicans live and serve, Baroi said. He underscored the importance of peaceful ways forward, even after some 500 bombs detonated across his country last August 17 were said to target religious leaders.

Southern Africa's Nutall and Central Africa's Makhulu echoed themes of forbearance and reconciliation, speaking from more than 40 years' experience with the effects and dismantling of apartheid.

"Let us begin to recognize our mutual belonging and responsibility for one another," Makhulu said. "This can be expressed through encounter, listening and hearing, meeting each other -- an open mind, humility, prayer, love and infinite patience, and mutual engagement enhancing bonds of affection."

Makhulu said the Anglican Communion "is living a number of inconsistencies," specifying that "it is not so long ago when divorces were dealt with in a legalistic manner...that opposition to the ordination of women was justified on the grounds that it conflicted with Paul's view of headship...that the Lambeth Conference of 1988 gave a pastoral report on polygamy; I would be interested to know how those who take a literal view of scripture square their agreement to this...and now sexual orientation is generating a lot of heat with vehement denials out of Africa; South Africa is quite open about it whilst other people in other parts of Africa are obliged to live in a clandestine manner."

The bishops applauded Makhulu's conclusion that ways forward are being achieved as "despite underlying difficulties some of you have taken it upon yourselves to seek each other out, to engage in face-to-face discussion in the search for reconciliation and willingness to continue to struggle together."

Those discussions include recent gatherings in Los Angeles and St. Louis where groups of bishops of diverse opinions met to build upon conversations begun last March at the House of Bishops' meeting at Camp Allen in Navasota, Texas.

Makhulu said he was "deeply saddened to learn that some members of the community of bishops deliberately decided to stay away" from the Puerto Rico meeting, where a total of some 120 bishops did attend from across the Episcopal Church's 110 dioceses and similar jurisdictions. Those absent included several affiliated with the 11-diocese Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes.

The bishops took up this matter by adopting a Mind of the House resolution "directing that a letter be written on behalf of the House to our colleagues who are absent, acknowledging that their presence among us was missed, that their fellowship is a gift to our common life and work as a Body, that we are eager to see them at the next meeting of the House, and offering our prayers and best wishes."

Engaging Windsor Report

Reports to the House included an overview, provided by New York Bishop Suffragan Catherine Roskam, of last June's Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) meeting in Nottingham, England. Roskam, one of the Episcopal Church's three elected members of the ACC, attended the meeting as an observer in keeping with U.S. and Canadian decisions to withdraw representatives voluntarily as recommended by the Windsor Report and 2005 Primates Meeting.

The bishops responded by commending the Episcopal Church's presentation to the ACC, "To Set Our Hope on Christ" (see text online at www.anglicanlistening.org) which responds to the Windsor Report's invitation to explain "from within the sources of authority that we as Anglicans have received in scripture, the apostolic tradition and reasoned reflection, how a person living in a same-gender union may be considered eligible to lead the flock of Christ."

The bishops further affirmed that they "continue to encourage the Church to read and discuss the Windsor Report, and will re-engage our own conversation about this report at our meeting in March of 2006." This affirmation followed an independent statement issued September 26 by 30 bishops, including seven retired, who also affirmed the Windsor Report and their support for the Anglican Communion and the See of Canterbury.

The meeting included several informal caucus sessions, including talks on how to support the exchange of information and report texts among bishops between House meetings, and how best to provide resources to address property disputes (see news release from group led by Bishop William Swing of California, http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_68271_ENG_HTM.htm). 

In other official business, the House received, from its Theology Committee, a major written report on "Forming Christians: Reflections on Baptism, Confirmation and Christian Formation." Bishop Henry Parsley of Alabama, theology committee chair, submitted the report, which reflects responses offered during last March's meeting of the House of Bishops.

The House also heard an update from the committee to nominate candidates for election next June 18 to a nine-year term as the Episcopal Church's 26th Presiding Bishop. Bishop Peter Lee of Virginia said the 29-member committee, which he chairs with Executive Council member Diane Pollard of New York, expects to conclude its work in January, and that plans call for the announcement of candidates in February.

Continuing to monitor the anti-racism work begun in dioceses after General Convention action in 2003, the House also addressed issues of racism surfaced by Hurricane Katrina and adopted a resolution "expressing our opposition to the suspension of the provisions of the Federal Guidelines of the Davis-Bacon Act, which call for the paying of prevailing wages in general contracts for relief and rebuilding areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita."

Citing this action, the House added in its "Report to the Church" (full text online at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_68043_ENG_HTM.htm) that "the harsh wind of Katrina exposed fundamental unjustices and environmental neglect and abuse, and blew away any pretense that the inequities of race and class have been overcome in our nation or among ourselves."

Within its report, the House also affirmed two talks presented during the meeting by Professor Philip Sheldrake of the University of Durham on themes of reconciliation and discernment. In their report, the bishops said Sheldrake invited them "to consider reconciliation and discernment not as tasks to be accomplished, but as processes in which we suspend pre-judgment of others and ourselves for the sake of learning to embody God's reconciling action in the world" (full texts of the Sheldrake lectures are posted online in the Episcopal News Service Press Room at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_6131_ENG_HTM.htm).

In remarks closing the House meeting, the Presiding Bishop underscored Sheldrake's themes, emphasizing the importance of dialogue among people of different points of view. "How unaware we would be," Griswold said, "if we did not come into contact with someone profoundly different.... We need one another to bring us to awareness."

Applauding Puerto Rico diocese

On behalf of all gathered, the Presiding Bishop thanked Puerto Rico Bishop David Alvarez and the full diocesan community for the exceptional welcome provided to the bishops, spouses, and guests.

"The spirited and warm hospitality extended to us and the tremendous mission being carried out by this community of 37,000 members encourages us greatly," the bishops wrote in their Report to the Church. "Their ministry to the poor and the homeless, to the aged and the dying, and to all who are living on the edges of our common life inspires us.... Our spirits have been enlightened and lifted by the grace of the Lord so evident in this portion of God's vineyard."

Puerto Rico Senate President Kenneth McClintock-Hernandez, an Episcopalian active in local parish life, greeted the bishops during their opening session.

The bishops especially praised the hospitals and medical centers established by the diocese in a healthcare system that makes the Diocese of Puerto Rico the third largest private-sector employer on the island (full information is available at www.iepanglicom.org).

St. Luke's Hospital, located in Ponce and currently the site of a major building expansion, was the site for the bishops' Sunday-morning Eucharist, celebrated in Spanish by the Presiding Bishop.

Location for the House meeting was the Ritz Carlton Hotel and Spa in San Juan, where planners secured significantly discounted guest rooms and accommodations for the meeting.

The beachfront setting was the backdrop for a closing dinner at which the Bishop of Southern Ohio, Herbert Thompson, was honored in advance of his upcoming retirement. Island-beat music was provided by youth of the Diocese of Puerto Rico.

The House of Bishops next meeting is its annual retreat gathering set for March 17-22 at the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville, North Carolina, followed by sessions June 13-21 when General Convention meets in Columbus, Ohio.