...The call for a moratorium [in the Windsor2004 Report] is a tactic - and we need to recognize it as such. At the Special Copnvention in SouthBend in 1969 when we were trying our best to implement John Hines call for a Special Program to alleviate poverty - “Wait and see” was one of the arguments. Another was we are moving to fast!

When we were arguing about ordination of women one of the argements was "Wait until all of Christendom (including the RCs) is doing it.” Another argument was "Let's make a constitutional change - (which would take two General Conventions) instead of a canonical change." Still another was "Men will lose out as leaders"

Martin Luther King's Letter from the Birminham jail said it well - We have
been told wait for a change - again and again (I'm summarizing). When the
House of Bishops meant to discuss the heresy charges against me someone
asked John Howe what it wouild take to drop the charges. His response
"Piece of cake You promise, as a house to wait and not ordain any more
gays or lesbians until the whole church approves and we'll drop the charges
against Walter" A resolution was actually written proposing that, until I
actually asked for a trial, saying in my asking that a trial would not in
any way solve the issue that was being dealt with.

Several of the ten Bishops signing the presentment [against me] tried to tell me that the presentment was
not about me. To which I said "It won't wash" But I also said "I am
constrained to avoid exchanging the peace with you - but I will do that
because I will not let what you are doing keep me from communion with you
and if I could not exchange the peace I could not receive communion. So I
am exchanging the peace with you tomorrow morning as a hope for the future
instead of a present reality."

The next morning the first person I saw when I turned around in the pew was Bill Wantland, not only one of my accusers, but the author of the brief. We exchanged the peace. ...

The message in all three sitautions was wait. It is a constant tactic. If
we succumb to it we are neglecting the mission of our Lord to love others -
the poor, the women, the gays and lesbians who are clearly God's children.We
can't be taken in by a tactic whose design is to stop the mission of the
church from being carried out.

-Walter Righter
Retired Bishop of the Episcopal Church