Camp Allen Press Conference

A hat-tip to Father Jake for this news and commentary: the Reverend Susan Russell offers some tidbits from the closing news conference at Camp Allen. Father Jake says, "Note especially that Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori did not 'sign' the Communiqué, but when asked by Dr. Williams if she could 'live with it,' her response was 'I'll take it back to the HoB.'

Here is the report from the Reverend Russell:

A post-HoB Press Conference concluded the work of the House of Bishops in Texas today. The panel of bishops avai[l]able at the press conference included Bishops Jefferts Schori, Ed Little (Northern Indiana), Chilton Knudsen (Maine), Dean Wolfe (Kansas), Stacy Sauls (Lexington), Cathy Roskam (New York), Chet Talton (Los Angeles), Mark Sisk (New York), Richard Chang (Hawaii) and Carlos Touche Porter (Bishop and Primate of Mexico)Integrity Communication Director John Gibson was among the media "conferenced in" for the Q&A and reported a couple of interesting (to me) tidbits.

When asked about whether not she had "signed" the Tanzania Communique, Bishop Jefferts Schori replied that that [sic] +Rowan asked EACH of them if they could live with the document. +Katharine said, "I will take this back to the House of Bishops."

And when asked if she supported the resolutions passed by the House of Bishops she replied that as presider of the house she supported the mind of the house.

The "reject the Primatial Vicar" resolution passed overwhelmingly. The "invite +Rowan" resolution was unanimous. And an effort to commend the lengthier statement to the House of Bishop's Theology Committee (AKA "kill it") failed and the statement was then adopted by the house on a standing vote.

AP's Rachel Zoll offers the first report I've seen from the Post-HoB Press Conference held at Camp Allen this afternoon. (You can read it all here ... with some quotes posted below.)

And finally, in fun-facts-to-know-and-tell about the church, I got a call from the airport from one industrious soul wanting to do some research on the plane on the way home who asked me if I could find a copy of the infamous Chapman Memo and email it to their Blackberry. I did as requested (motivated -- I'll admit -- by equal measures of obedience and curiosity) and encourage you to click on the link above check it out.

It was dated December 2003.

My, my, my!