The Consultation is a coalition of eleven independent
organizations in the Episcopal Church committed to peace with justice. We come
to the 2006 General Convention in
We affirm the goodness of all
creation.
• We join our voices with God, who, after completing all of
Creation said, “It is very good.”
• We see the image of God in one another and in all of
Creation.
• We are inextricably linked in an interdependent web of
Creation.
We have sinned and fallen short of the
mark.
• We fail to recognize the image of God and the Christ in
others and ourselves.
• We have by our action and inaction perpetuated a culture
of greed, domination, and violence.
• We in the Episcopal Church have been complicit in this
sin.
We have allowed our governance to be
distorted.
• We believe that all the baptized are called to share in
the governance and mission of the Church at all
levels.
• We see the increase of power claimed by the episcopate as
an imbalance in the Body.
• We compromise the church as sign and witness by not
sharing our resources.
We reaffirm the promises of our Baptismal
Covenant
•
to
continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and
in the prayers.
• to persevere in resisting evil and, whenever we fall into
sin, to repent and return to the Lord.
• to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in
Christ.
• to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our
neighbor as ourselves.
• to strive for justice and peace among all people and to
respect the dignity of every human being.
Therefore, we call the Church, gathered at this 2006
General Convention, to:
1. Continue the radical reformation of the
Church.
• remove all canonical obstacles to exercising the full
baptismal ministry in the whole life of the Church.
• conform
the canons to the baptismal theology of The
Book of Common Prayer.
2. Invest in economic justice and eliminate
poverty.
• support the U.N. Millennium Development Goals fully,
including the 0.7%
allocation of funds.
• affirm worker justice, including the right to
unionize.
• advocate for a living wage and health care for
all.
• invest in economic justice to eliminate
poverty.
• ask the Church Pension Group to provide equitable
retirement policies for women.
3. Make reparation for
slavery.
•
commission
a report to describe the Church’s culpability, preserve this chapter of our
history, and make recommendations for compensation.
•
support
public legislation and compensation.
•
apologize
publicly for the Church’s role in this violation of basic human
rights.
4. Dismantle racism.
•
call
upon every diocese to mandate anti-racism training.
•
deepen
our commitment to inclusive representation on slates for leadership at all
levels of the Church.
5. End the culture of
violence
•
work
for the end of violence against women and children throughout the
global
village.
•
work
to change federal budget priorities that fuel the culture of violence at
the
expense health and welfare at home and peace
abroad.
•
include
in
appropriate responses.
•
confess
the violence inherent in using language for worship that is not
inclusive,
expansive, and hospitable.
6. Build a culture of
peace.
•
call
for an end to the war in
•
offer
training in creative peacemaking in every diocese.
•
inform
our young people of the conscientious objector registry at the
Episcopal
•
add
peace, justice, and nonviolence studies to the curricula of all Episcopal
schools, colleges, and seminaries.
•
encourage
investment in enterprises that bring peace and prosperity to areas
of
conflict.
7. Clarify our theology of marriage, family, and human
sexuality
•
oppose
the limitation of adoption and other civil contracts on the basis of
sexual
orientation or marital
status.
•
relieve
the clergy from their responsibility as civil magistrates in
marriage.
•
reaffirm
that all orders of ministry are open to all the Baptized who are otherwise
qualified.
8. Promote environmental
justice
•
mandate
detailed energy audits and conservation measures, including recycling, in all
Episcopal Church facilities and programs.
•
commit
the Episcopal Church to purchasing electric power from renewable
sources.
• call for the federal government to fund fully its
Environmental Protection Agency
Superfund.
• call upon our government to recommit to the Kyoto
Protocols.
9. Reflect our mission priorities in Program, Budget, and
Finance
•
Urge
Program, Budget, and Finance to restore the original askings for mission and
economic justice programs.