Vote Margins at the HoB Meeting

The StandFirm website has done a fine job of carrying reactions from the "conservative" side to the House of Bishops' resolutions. The Reverend Matt Kennedy (a priest in Binghamton, NY) interviewed Bishop Jack Iker (of Fort Worth) and Canon Kendall Harmon (Canon Theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina); the 27-minute audio interview is here. All three participants have been clear about their opposition to the current direction of the Episcopal Church and are active in the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, and the interviews are predictably partisan.

One note of news emerges, which we have not heard reported elsewhere: Canon Harmon reports that – according to South Carolina's Bishop Salmon – the resolution calling for Archbishop Williams to visit the U.S. passed unanimously, and that both other resolutions passed by a strong two-thirds majority. Those other two resolutions are the one asking Executive Council to reject the Pastoral Scheme proposed in the Tanzania Communiqué and the longer "Communication to the Church." (All three resolutions are available here.)