Bishop Bruno and Bishop Charles Jenkins of Louisiana developed the new working draft with an earlier draft. During a closed-door executive session, the bishops discussed the two documents together for several hours without coming to any common consensus.

Bruno's comments signaled a contrarian position. On the one hand, they are trying to allay the fears of Global South Primates who say they will be unable to live with what the Episcopal Church decides. At the same time, they are steadfastly refusing to reverse General Convention resolutions, in fact making it clear that not even these 150 assembled bishops can answer for the whole church. Any substantial decisions will have to wait till 2009 when GC meets again.

Bruno said bishops are powerless to change the church's official position, especially those resolutions passed at GC2003 and GC2006. GC2006 saw the consecration of an openly homoerotic priest to the episcopacy.

Two other bishops at the media briefing were Bishop Neil Alexander of Atlanta and Bishop David Alvarez of Puerto Rico. All three are ultra liberal bishops. (There has not been a conservative bishop at any press conference.)

What is clear is that a second or final document will only preserve the status quo. One orthodox bishop has told VOL that he could not see how the HOB could get themselves out of the corner they were holed up in.

Questioned by journalists at the press briefing on whether there would be any change to the current policy on same-sex blessings, as determined by General Convention Resolution C051 and approved in 2003, Bruno said that that resolution states "that local faith communities are operating within the bounds of our common life as they explore and experience liturgies celebrating and blessing same-sex unions," and can not be reversed.

Bruno said that he had never allowed same-sex blessings in his diocese because the Episcopal Church has never authorized it. When VOL publicly questioned Bruno about a news report, in The New York Times, that a same-sex blessing had occurred just a few days earlier at All Saints, Beverly Hills, Bruno retorted, "I don't know anything about that."

Bishop Bruno said, "Same-sex blessings do not occur in my diocese with my permission." The media briefing officially ended shortly after that. In a follow up question, Bishop Bruno denied knowledge of a same-sex blessing that occurred Saturday at All Saints', Beverly Hills. A celebration announcement was published in the Sunday edition of the Times.

Later this month, Sergio Carranza-Gomez Assisting Bishop of Los Angeles, will be the celebrant at a "pontifical high mass" for a same-sex male couple.

The "wink, wink, nod, nod" attitude by Bruno was not lost on the reporters who continued to press the three bishops. Most of the time was spent stone-walling the reporters by saying they either didn't have knowledge of certain things or they would have to wait to see the mind of the HOB.

When VOL bored in with a question about recent reports by this reporter and the Telegraph that the Anglican Communion would split before the end of the year, Bruno shot back, "I have not received that information...I don't know about that."

Regarding the first draft of the HOB statement Bishop Alvarez admitted "We are very clear that we may have some people not in agreement with the majority position of the General Convention. It is not something we could foresee... some parishes are breaking away."

Bishop Alexander said "We have, any number of times, as an Anglican Communion have hard pull on our fabric. We are a tough bunch we are faithful to the ministry and mission of Jesus Christ and the Anglican Communion. We will find a way forward. Our disagreements are about issues."

"A significant majority of the house are in unanimity, things are coming into focus. We are coalescing around the same ideas and we will be very clear in what we say. The wording will answer in unison the conservatives and the Primates of the Anglican Communion and conservatives in the Episcopal Church," said Bruno.

At an open session of the HOB today, a number of bishops read out the names of parishes that had left their dioceses for other jurisdictions like AMIA and CANA, but showed no signs of sadness or concern at the loss of thousands of their people. They down played the losses as small and insignificant, occasionally sniggering when mention was made of a visiting Anglican primate to their dioceses.

Mrs. Schori said The Episcopal Church was going through a "time of some confusion with the conflict being played out in newspapers" but that this didn't represent the whole story. "I meet face to face with dioceses I go into and have conversation for three or four days. I don't just go for consecrations." She said she would be shortly flying to the Diocese of the Rio Grande where the Rt. Rev. Jeffrey Steenson has resigned his orders and will head for the Roman Catholic Church. (A statement by Bishop Steenson will be posted shortly).

Another report that VOL obtained revealed that the Episcopal Church will lose half of its current active clergy within the next ten years. "We predict that Generation X will not sustain this high rate of midlife ordinations, and when large numbers of Baby Boomers begin to retire the rate of ordination of people under 45 will not be enough to replace the retirees."

END
END