"Rather than call for responses from individual Episcopalians, Parsley said the committee will in late August and early September gather input from bishops on the result of their conversations in their dioceses.
He said the committee hopes that Episcopalians will "read, mark, inwardly digest and then come talk" about the document with their bishop.
"Every diocese will have to do that in their own way," he said. "We didn't want it to be an individual thing. We wanted it to be a diocesan, corporate process overseen by the bishop."
Parsley said the corporate nature of the conversations is important, given the nature of the requests made by the Primates at the end of their February gathering in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania via a communique."
So it appears there is no exam due. Rather we wait for some sort of diocesan activity in each diocese, done in the summer months when bishops are on vacation and parishes in summer mode.
Meanwhile, having read the document I am not sure the questions reach very far into the issues of Dar Es Salaam.
More on that later.
Meanwhile, relax. Exams are off - after you respond to the Draft Covenant.
The best kind of final exam is one you don't have to take or turn in.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame that the responses will only be a part of a diocesan response because there will be far more "finger prints" of bishops on the documents than the laity. The documents come from an overly episcopal process as it is. It is once more a process in which one order has more equality than others.
ReplyDeleteThe "Short Study Guide to Aid TEC in Responding to the Draft [I initially typed "daft"--hmmm] Anglican Covenant as Prepared by the Covenant Design Group" says in the third paragraph: "All Episcopalians, including [enumeration of categories] are encouraged to send their responses to...."
ReplyDeleteWhile the enumeration names Deputies to GC, Bishops, members of Cmmittees, Commission, Agencies and Boards of the GC, as well as Standing Committees, and you have been given an interpretation stressing corporate, diocesan responses, I see the grammar as governed by the opening phrase: "All Episcopalians, including...."
The responses due June 4 may be sent to either a snail-mail address or gcsecretary@episopalchurch.org
That's according to what I pulled off the web. Not sure I will pull anything coherent together by tomorrow.
The HoB might want responses overseen by bishops but maybe the lay and clergy members of the HoD think otherwise.