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Spiritual Context of the Windsor Report, The

Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2005 by Charleston, Steven

If the Windsor Report is not only an ecclesiological or theological document, what is it? This article places the Report into both the historic and biblical contexts of Anglican spirituality. In doing so, this essay answers three essential questions about the foundation, function, and future of the Windsor Report. Using scriptural reference points, the article claims a "common ground" that the church can use in developing a meaningful dialogue for reconciliation and unity. Servanthood, forgiveness, and discernment are presented as the three categories for conversation that persons from "any point on the compass" can engage to put the Windsor Report to work on the local parish or diocesan level.

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The true context for the Windsor Report is a deep challenge for any Anglican from any point on the compass, either geographic or theological. It is a ground for our shared experience as human beings that is far broader than our cultural attitudes about sexuality. It is a call to courageous self-reflection, careful historical analysis, and difficult cross-cultural dialogue. It is a personal risk that each of us will have to be willing to make.

Two days after the Windsor Report was first released to the public I wrote the words above as part of a study guide I published called "The Middle Way." The purpose of "The Middle Way" was simple. It was my attempt to help people not just react to the Windsor Report, but to reflect on it, to put it into context. Rather than a cause for even more dissension along predictable party lines, I saw the Report as an opportunity for genuine reconciliation. I felt that if we could take the risk to step back from our conventional positions on human sexuality, we could enter into the transformative experience of learning something together. Something about ourselves as Anglicans. Something about the meaning of being a Christian living in an age of conflict and fear.

The purpose of this essay is to offer a meditation on the spiritual context of the Windsor Report. Once again, I invite all of us, whatever our reactions to the Report may be, to reflect deeply on our commitment to reconciliation. To do this, I begin with three very simple questions: Where did the Report come from? How are we trying to use it? Where is it taking us?

In answering these questions, we have an opportunity to gain a fresh perspective on the Windsor Report, but only if we take a risk. The risk is to let go of our individual attitudes about the content of the Report. The reward is to enter into a common vision of the spiritual process surrounding the Report. This conceptual move from content to process is risky because it requires us to take personal responsibility for one another.

In the debate over content, we have our arguments well prepared and documented. We are on firm ground. We know our position on human sexuality, biblical interpretation, and ecclesiological structure. But when it comes to process, we are on much softer ground. Content allows us to draw sharp distinctions between ourselves and others. The spiritual process I will describe does not. We have all been involved in the process. Whether we think of ourselves as conservative, moderate, or liberal, we have all participated in a centuries-old process that has brought us the Windsor Report and that will carry us into our undefined future as a church. While we are stakeholders when it comes to content, we are shareholders when it comes to process.

Content divides us. Process unites us. Even if we are unhappy with the process, suspicious of it, or frustrated by it, still we are together in living through it. While we may never be able to change one another's minds about the content of our individual opinions, we can change how we live together in spite of them. Therefore, even if it is soft ground, process is common ground. We have a place on which to begin building a new understanding with one another. With the three questions above, we also have the tools.

What do these questions sound like if we hear them as questions about process and not content? What do our three questions sound like if we put them into a spiritual context? I believe they sound like the gospel. I believe they reveal a spiritual path we can follow in making the Windsor Report something more than a footnote in our historical struggle. They sound like servanthood, forgiveness, and discernment.

The Context of Servanthood

The process that created the Windsor Report began when a handful of people were walking across country. The people were the first followers of Jesus and the country was Galilee. On that walk, Jesus overheard some of his followers arguing among themselves. He stopped and asked them what they were discussing. They answered that they were debating who among them should be considered the greatest. Jesus answered that question for them and in so doing set in motion a process that continues to this day.

The context for the Windsor Report is the context of servanthood. While individually each one of us may wish we could occupy a place of primacy among others in deciding matters of the faith, the process Jesus created prohibits us from doing so. His injunction that in our relationships we are to be servants of one another and not lords over one another defines the nature of our community.

Spiritual Context of the Windsor Report, The

Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2005 by Charleston, Steven

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