We Will, With God's Help
We Will, With God's Help, published in June 2009 by the Chicago Consultation, is a collection of essays about perspectives on baptism, sexuality and the Anglican Communion. It was mailed to all bishops of the Episcopal Church and all deputies to General Convention, and is available here online.
From the introduction to We Will, With God's Help, titled "Christ's Work of Reconciliation in the World: Full Inclusion and Relationships in the Anglican Communion," by Ruth A. Meyers:
In recent years, we Episcopalians have too often agonized over a choice that is painful, regrettable, and most of all, false. We have been wrongly tempted to believe that we must choose between relationships in the worldwide Anglican Communion and full inclusion of all of our baptized sisters and brothers, including those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT).
In late 2007, the Chicago Consultation, an international group of Anglican bishops, theologians, and other church leaders who are committed to the full inclusion of LGBT people in the Episcopal Church, came together to consider how we might help the church to move past this false choice. As we have studied and prayed together, our work has been grounded in the twin beliefs that the Anglican Communion is, at its best, a manifestation of the body of Christ in which the Holy Spirit blesses members from different cultures and contexts with various gifts and charisms; and that chief among the gifts of the Episcopal Church is our rich and robust theology of baptism and our baptismal covenant.
From our first meeting, we could see all around us the blessings that baptized LGBT Christians and their ministries have brought to the Episcopal Church. And again and again, we found ourselves returning to baptism as the basis for our understanding of the church. So we turned to two distinguished scholars of church history and theology to help us deepen our reflections. Dr. Fredrica Harris Thompsett and the Very Rev. Dr. William Petersen have taught in seminaries of the Episcopal Church for many years, and we invited them to address a meeting of the Chicago Consultation in February 2009.
--Meyers is co-convener of the Chicago Consultation; professor of liturgics at Seabury Western Theological Seminary; and a deputy from the Diocese of Chicago
Download We Will, With God's Help.
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