Following a first meeting at Holy Cross Monastery at West Park, New York, in November 1999, once again at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, a group of bishops, representing a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds, met from 6 to 10 December at Alton Abbey, Hampshire, U.K. The bishops present were:
The Rt Revd Simon Chiwanga, Bishop of Mpwapwa
The Rt Revd Terence Finlay, Bishop of Toronto
The Most Revd Frank Griswold, Presiding Bishop and Primate, The Episcopal Church, USA
The Rt Revd Roger Herft, Bishop of Newcastle
The Rt Revd Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Bishop of Kaduna
The Rt Revd Chilton Knudsen, Bishop of Maine
The Most Revd Peter Kwong, Archbishop of Hong Kong
The Most Revd Glauco Soares de Lima, Primate of Brazil and Bishop of Sao Paulo
The Rt Revd John Lipscomb, Bishop of Southwest Florida
The Rt Revd Michael Scott-Joynt, Bishop of Winchester
The Most Revd Peter Watson, Archbishop of Melbourne
The Most Revd Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Wales
In an atmosphere of prayer and grounded in Scripture, and through participation in the worship life of Alton Abbey, the participants continued conversations on human sexuality and the call to Christian holiness. The conversations noted events in our Communion since November 1999, including the consecrations in Singapore, the meeting of Primates in Portugal and the General Convention of ECUSA in Denver, USA.
The same experienced facilitators present at New York assisted the process at Alton Abbey. Trust and respect continued to grow as the group practised the disciplines of "interpretive charity." The bishops also recognised the priority of maintaining and deepening the unity of the Anglican Communion in the truth and love of Jesus Christ as a witness to Him.
The conversations on human sexuality included attention to specific Biblical texts. A variety of understandings emerged which brought our differences into focus. It also revealed each person's profound commitment to seeking God's will as discerned in the Scriptures.
The value of facilitated dialogue was experienced as the bishops were enabled to explore different views with respect and care. The experience lead the members of the group to seek deeper understandings of each other's view points and situations. Their positive reactions to the process encouraged the group once again to offer this to the Communion as a way of working with this and other controversial issues.
The illumination of Holy Scripture beckons us to continue to walk together:
"You are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, you are all one in Christ Jesus." Gal 3:26-28