Who are the Sixty bishops, and why are they hanging around together?

Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth has recently written his clergy. In his letter he said this: “One of the most encouraging signs of the realignment that is under way is the first-ever Council of Bishops of the Common Cause Partners which is to meet in Pittsburgh during the last week of September. This is a gathering of all bishops exercising active ministry within the member bodies of Common Cause.* The purpose of the meeting is to explore ways in which we can work together for a biblical, missionary and united Anglicanism in North America. I will be among some 60 bishops in attendance, as will be the newly consecrated bishops serving those congregations here in the States that are under the Provinces of Uganda and Kenya.”

So who are the sixty bishops? Here is an effort to count them:

I am using the Anglican Communion Network list of the Common Cause Partnership and am assuming that Provinces active in the US through bishops appointed for work here are part of the CCP and their Archbishops are invited as well as bishops directly involved in mission in the US. In addition I have assumed that several priests nominated but not yet consecrated will also be invited.

Kenya
1.Archbishop Nzimbi
2.Bishop Bill Atwood
3.Bishop Bill Murdoch

Southern Cone:

4.Presiding Bishop Greg Venables
5.Bishop Bill Cox
6.Bishop Frank Lyons
7.Bishop Cavalcanti of Recife (PSC).

Uganda:

8.Archbishop Henry Orombi
9.Bishop Andy Fairfield
10.Bishop John Guernsey

Anglican Coalition in Canada
(no bishops)

Anglican Communion Network

11 Albany, Bishop William Love
12 Central Florida Bishop John Howe
13 Dallas, Bishop James Stanton
14 Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker
15 Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan
16 Pittsburgh, Bishop Harry Scriven
17 Quin8cy Bishop Keith L. Ackerman
18 Rio Grande Bishop Jeffrey N. Steenson
19 San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield
20 South Carolina Bishop elect Mark Lawrence
21 Springfield Bishop Peter Beckwith

Anglican Essentials Canada
22 Bishop Donald Harvey, St. John 's NL (acting) ?

Anglican Mission in America

23 The Most Rev. Emmanuel Mbona Kolini
24 Bishop Charles Hurt (Chuck) Murphy, III
25 Bishop Alexander Maury (Sandy) Greene
26 Bishop Thomas William (TJ) Johnston, Jr.
27 Bishop John Hewitt Rodgers, Jr.(Retired)
28 Bishop Thad Burnham
29 Bishop Elect Terrell Glenn,
30 Bishop Elect Philip Jones
31 Bishop Elect John Miller.

Anglican Network in Canada
(no bishops)

Anglican Province of America 32 The Most Reverend Walter Grundorf 33 Bishop C. Peter Brewer 34 Bishop Clark H. Dorman 35 Bishop Robert Loiselle 36 Bishop Richard Boyce 37 Bishop John Hamers 38 Bishop Winfield S. Mott 39 The Most Rev'd Dr. Lawrence Shaver

Convocation of Anglicans in North America

40Archbishop Peter J. Akinola
41Bishop Martyn Minns:
42 Bishop Dr. David J. Bena
43 Bishop Ben Kwashi

Forward in Faith North America

44 Bishop elect in search for consecrators, Bill Illgenfritz

Reformed Episcopal Church
45 Bishop Leonard W. Riches
46 Bishop David Hicks - Bishop
47 Bishop Royal U. Grote, Jr
48 Bishop Daniel R. Morse
49 Bishop Ray R. Sutton
50 Bishop George B. Fincke
51 Bishop Michael Fedechko
52 Bishop Charles Dorrington

In addition there may be several retired US bishops in attendance, but without jurisdiction here or elsewhere.

That’s the list as I understand it. Fifty-two, not sixty. But close enough. And of course I am hoping that readers of this will offer corrections. I am sure they will come.

Of this list of 52, 17 are bishops who are, I assume, invited to Lambeth. Ten are members of the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church. Three are retired bishops of TEC who in retirement resigned from the House of Bishops and took canonical residence in other Provinces. Nineteen are from churches not in communion with the See of Canterbury.

The number of TEC bishops in the Network and therefore part of the CCP (Common Cause Partnership) has not grown and it is unclear just how committed these bishops are to the emerging Council of Bishops whose primary task seems to be to work for a unified orthodox Anglican Province in North America. Only Bishops Duncan and Iker have crossed the line and taken part in the ordinations of new bishops from the Provinces of Kenya and Uganda. Rumors persist that Bishop Schofield is ready to bolt. Nothing much is heard from Bishops Stanton and Steeson and Bishop Howe seems to have emerged as a moderate.

In the final run up to the CCP meeting then, it would appear that about 80% of the bishops who will be part of this meeting are not part of TEC, and about 35% are bishops in churches not in communion with the See of Canterbury. There are thirteen bishops or bishops elect whose standing with Canterbury is such that their inclusion in Lambeth is questionable.

So what we have here is a hodge-podge of bishops who will gather and try to show that they are indeed the orthodox remnant, the true presence of Anglicanism in North America. They don’t agree on many things. They seem only to agree on the level of their unhappiness with TEC. Some of this unhappiness has been around for a long time, long before any questions had arisen about the inclusion of gay and lesbian persons. Unhappiness with the Prayer Book of 1892, the Prayer Book of 1979, the ordination of women, living in an Anglican Communion that reeked of colonialism, the changes and chances of this mortal life in which not everyone who wants to be bishop can be, modernity in its various aspects, and various matters of inclusion.

This will be a meeting of unhappy people, and while they might begin by being delighted by just how many of them there are – 60 by Bishop Iker’s count, not more than a generous 52 by my count – it will be quite surprising if the unhappiness with TEC will be enough to hold them together for long.