We are featuring a much longer video clip than usual because the Rev. James Cooper’s sermon is the most in-depth description of the Road to Emmaus consultation, held in Madrid in July, that we have heard.
The meeting, put together by Trinity Church, Wall Street, of which Cooper is rector, brought together about two dozen bishops from the Episcopal Church and two dozen from Africa. It was a fairly quiet affair, the better to foster conversation, and many American bishops left feeling that the Anglican Communion was not as broken as they had once assumed, and that there were many bishops in many countries willing to work with them, regardless of differences over issues of human sexuality. This meeting is primarily responsible for the optimism that at least some liberal Episcopal bishops feel about the future of the Communion. It has also served as a template of sorts for the planning of the Lambeth Conference.