Dear Ones,
I write to you from the House of Bishops meeting in Fairbanks, Alaska. I have received a few emails regarding the absence of my name on the letter in the New York Times which appeared on Thursday, September 21st. The letter was in support of DACA “Dreamers” and a call on our leaders not to reverse this program, and even more to make it permanent. There has been a lot of confusion here at the meeting about how the signers were invited, and that confusion includes me. My confusion comes from being asked to sign many such letters which I have applied my name to. At first, I believed I had received this invitation but simply did not make the deadline. I was also asked, by another group, to support such a letter that would cost money to place. I did not respond to that as I could not use diocesan resources in such a way without Council’s approval.
However, after more research, and after hearing from other bishops who find themselves in the same position on this as myself, I have found that my name was not included on the listserv that was provided by the Presiding Bishop’s Office to the organizers of this letter. My absence on this letter is as simple as that. I did not receive the invitation. I, along with others, are working to get our names properly included on the various listservs for the House of Bishops in the hope that such occurrences will not happen again. That said, I applaud the wide diversity of our House that did respond.
I will say again, all that was in the letter I fully support. I have signed onto many similar letters and would not have hesitated signing onto this one. If you would like to know my thoughts on this issue, please look at my blog published just a few days into the DACA reversal decision. You can access that at www.bishoprickel.com. The blog was entitled “Dreams.”
Blessings to all,
+Greg
