Love it or hate it Presbyterians are big on committees.  That is how we do things as a Covenant Community.  That is how we hold ourselves accountable.  And it allows the church to discern together God’s will as we listen to each other and are guided by the Holy Spirit.  And the PC(USA) has an open meetings policy.

And you probably know that back in February the Moderator of the General Assembly of the PC(USA) named a Special Committee to study civil unions and Christian marriage.  It met back in March and will meet again in two weeks.

Being on that Special Committee myself I had to laugh when I read this news about the Episcopal Church today:

The House of Bishops Theology Committee is refusing to release the
names of members of a sub-committee it has appointed to study same-sex
relationships. The existence of the panel was first reported in the Blue Book,
which contains information relevant to General Convention, 2009.
However, the Rt. Rev. Henry Parsley of Alabama, chair of the Theology
Committee has refused several requests to disclose the names of its
members.

Thanks to The Lead for this information.  It seems that since it is a sub-committee of the Theology Committee the possible members of the sub-committee are known.  Still, an interesting way to do business.  The LGBT advocacy group Integrity responded, in part, with this:

“If this isn’t the height of absurdity and insult I don’t know what
is,” said the Reverend Susan Russell, President of Integrity USA, the
LGBT advocacy group within the Episcopal Church. “It sends a horrific
message to gay and lesbian people – both inside and outside the church.
The very concept of “secret studies” elicits painful memories of secret
studies done on other minority groups in the past and is utterly
contrary to our baptismal promise to respect the dignity of every human
being. There is absolutely nothing dignified about a secret study of a
group already being discriminated against. It is suspect, disingenuous
and dishonest.”

This has “gone viral” on the Episcopal and Anglican blogs:  The Friends of Jake, Preludium, Telling Secrets, Thinking Anglicans, are ones I have seen so far and I am sure there are many more to come.

I will update as news develops.

Update – 6/4/09:
There has been a response from the chair of the Theology Committee, the Rt. Rev. Henry N. Parsley, Jr. The official statement says, in part:

…I wish to assure those concerned that the panel very intentionally
represents a robust range of views on the subject and includes gay and
lesbian persons.

and

This project has been designed in full communication with the House of
Bishops. It has always been the committee’s intention to publish the
names of the panel when the work has reached the appropriate stage. We
believe that for a season the work can best be accomplished by allowing
the panel to work in confidence. This supports the full collegiality
and academic freedom of the theologians and provides the space they
need for the deep dialogue and reflection that is taking place among
them.

And the church has issued a press release referring to this statement.

The response from within the Episcopal Church continues and outside the Anglican circles a few others, besides myself, who have commented include more media-oriented blogs BibleBeltBlogger, Desert’s Child, and Daily Religious.

Update – 6/6/09
There are now reports that the Episcopal Church web site which previously promised transparency in their operations has removed that claim.  The story from BibleBeltBlogger and a response from Preludium.

And a little humor from The Lead about selecting the members of the secret committee.