The Episcopal middle: listening to congregations

But such dismay is not the prelude to endorsing the conservative response as exemplified by the American Anglican Council (AAG), which looks to create an alternative church. The majority of Episcopalians value honest acknowledgment of differences and engagement with them. They intend to be collaborators in an open-ended process of discernment, one in which accommodation of diversity, not foreclosure of it, matters.

Fewer than a dozen of the church's more than 100 dioceses are poised to seek an alternative ecclesiastical structure. Is there a scenario under which this conservative initiative could attract substantially more Episcopalians? For the church's leaders, the worst possible tack would be to disregard the concerns of the majority of the people in the pew. If the national leadership assumes that the controversy over a gay bishop and the blessing of same-sex unions somehow has blown over, and if it does not engage grassroots concerns, the church's infrastructure will erode severely. Only a minority of people in Episcopal pews understand the church's national structures. Many wonder why such structures exist. Without a national effort to re-vision the church based on local priorities, there will be further erosion of loyalty. Bishops as well as clergy and lay leaders in increasing numbers will disregard national actions, and carve out their own meeting grounds.

Given the tenor of its new majority, the Episcopal Church is less likely to split than it is to fragment into a de facto confederation. The national organization will remain, giving an illusion of unity, while parishes and dioceses devote more attention to regional priorities. The focus of these initiatives will be on clarifying a new sense of mission. The intensity of conversations about leadership at the grassroots signals this longing. One recent gathering of lay leaders named leadership and communication as the church's most urgent needs.

Can the national leadership address this longing effectively? The implications of the Episcopal Church Foundation's inquiries are clear: if national leaders heed local priorities in tangible terms, the church's fragmentation can be minimized. If national leaders encourage a genuine deliberative process on mission and leadership that values local wisdom and local needs, the church may be poised for an era of reconsolidation. To do this, national leaders must seek lessons from the current crisis--lessons based upon engagement with the sentiments of the majority of Episcopalians. With such honesty, it will be clear that Episcopalians must focus not on the triumph of one position on a delicate issue. They must honor divergent views in collective discernment. Out of such a process, local leaders believe, faithful direction for the church becomes possible.

William L. Sachs is director of research at the Episcopal Church Foundation in New York.

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