Bishops' encounter termed `honest'.Houston Despite dire predictions of a confrontation over a range of sensitive issues in the Episcopal Church Episcopal Church, Anglican church of the United States. Its separate existence as an American ecclesiastical body with its own episcopate began in 1789. Doctrine and Organization of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , the annual spring retreat of bishops ended with general agreement that it had been one of the most honest encounters many of them had experienced. The overall theme of the retreat was reconciliation - and the way that the theme was handled was credited by many bishops for creating a much better climate for dealing with tensions over the issues. Building on their earlier study of globalisation at last fall's meeting in Vermont, the bishops used their time to study reconciliation as mission and as integral to the role of a bishop. "We started with personal dimensions of reconciliation and then considered ourselves as a community of ministers of reconciliation -- bishops of the church," Presiding Bishop The Presiding Bishop is an ecclesiastical position in some denominations of Christianity. Anglican Anglican Church of New Zealand For a short period the style Presiding Bishop was used by the Anglican Church in New Zealand. Frank Griswold said in a press conversation at the end of the retreat. We asked who we are as people reconciled to God in Christ and, out of that reconciliation, how we are caught up in a context of continued reconciliation. "Then we moved from personal to the communal or ecclesial Ec`cle´si`al a. 1. Ecclesiastical. level of reconciliation and ... looked at some of the concerns in the life of the church. But we also recognised that the church is called to be a reconciling force in the world so we turned our attention to global matters such as world poverty, disease, disparity dis·par·i·ty n. pl. dis·par·i·ties 1. The condition or fact of being unequal, as in age, rank, or degree; difference: "narrow the economic disparities among regions and industries" between rich and poor in this country, our relationship to the larger Anglican Communion Anglican Communion, the body of churches in all parts of the world that are in communion with the Church of England (see England, Church of). The communion is composed of regional churches, provinces, and separate dioceses bound together by mutual loyalty as ," he added. Bishop Griswold said that the presence of representatives from other churches was very helpful. |
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