MIDDLE EAST: President Bishop Mouneer Anis resigns from Standing Committee
Episcopal News Service. February 1, 2010 [020110-04]
Matthew Davies
President Bishop Mouneer Anis of Jerusalem and the Middle East has resigned from the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion saying that his presence has "no value whatsoever" and that his voice is "like a useless cry in the wilderness."
Anis' decision was announced in a Jan. 30 public letter he sent to the communion's primates and moderators as well as the other Standing Committee members.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, chair of the Standing Committee, expressed his regret at the decision, saying that Anis "has made an important contribution to the work of the Standing Committee, for which I am deeply grateful. I regret his decision to stand down but will continue to welcome his active engagement with the life of the communion and the challenges we face together."
Anis, bishop of the Diocese of Egypt and one of the communion's 38 primates, said that his resignation from the Standing Committee, would "not stop my commitment … to work for the present and future of our beloved Anglican Communion and the greater Christian witness."
However, he said he had "come to the sad realization" that the Standing Committee and the Anglican Consultative Council, the communion's main policy-making body, had "no desire … to follow through on recommendations that have been taken by other instruments of communion to sort out the problems which face the Anglican Communion and which are tearing its fabric apart."
The four instruments of communion are the archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Consultative Council, the Primates Meeting, and the Lambeth Conference of bishops.
The Standing Committee, which usually meets annually but has met biannually for the past three years, oversees the day-to-day operations of the Anglican Communion Office and the programs and ministries of the instruments of communion. The Standing Committee is made up of 15 members elected from among the ACC and the Primates Meeting.
When it last met in London in December 2009, the committee issued a call for "gracious restraint in respect of actions that endanger the unity of the Anglican Communion."
According to the text of the resolution, the call for "gracious restraint" came in response to the election of the Rev. Mary Glasspool, a partnered lesbian woman, as a bishop in Los Angeles, as well as the decision by some dioceses in the U.S. and Canada "to proceed with formal ceremonies of same-sex blessings," and the "continuing cross-jurisdictional activity within the communion."
However, Anis said in his letter that the committee "unfortunately was unable to respond firmly and effectively" to two resolutions passed by the Episcopal Church's General Convention last summer. Those resolutions are D025 that affirms "that God has called and may call" gay and lesbian people "to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church," and C056 that calls for the collection and development of theological resources for the blessing of same-gender unions and allows bishops to provide "a generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church."
Although in his letter Anis acknowledged the need to care for "the marginalized in our communities, like the LGBT community," he said that orthodox Anglicans were also being marginalized.
"I understand that in a family, the concern of every member is cared for; but this is not the reality in our meetings where the orthodox voices are disregarded or suppressed," he said.
Anis, a medical doctor, has said publicly that he believes homosexuality is a curable condition and that gays and lesbians can change their sexuality using therapy.
Anis also raised concerns about the Anglican covenant, a set of principles intended to bind the Anglican Communion in light of recent disagreements over human sexuality issues and theological interpretation. He said that provinces that want to "come to a covenantal relationship while carrying baggage that has already torn the fabric of the communion" ought to sort out their conflicts with the communion before considering its adoption. He also suggested that both the council and the Standing Committee would have to be reformed to consist only of representatives of provinces that have adopted the covenant.
At its December meeting, the Standing Committee approved a revised version of section 4 of the proposed Anglican covenant and sent the entire text to the communion's 38 provinces for formal consideration. The covenant has undergone various revisions in recent years.
Anis' resignation and contents of his letter have drawn both praise and criticism.
On Jan. 31, four leading members of the conservative Anglican Communion Institute issued a statement questioning the credibility of the Standing Committee and suggesting that it "ought not to be claiming the authority it seems to be assuming."
The institute said that "substantial doubts" had been expressed by Anis and privately by others about whether the Standing Committee is "the appropriate body to coordinate the implementation of the covenant. These concerns point to the steps that we believe are necessary to restore the communion so badly damaged by actions in North America over the last decade."
Meanwhile, Jim Naughton, editor-in-chief of the Episcopal Café blog, said: "Anyone who watched Archbishop Anis be led around by British and American handlers at the Lambeth Conference, saw him read statements they had prepared for them, and watched them prompt him when he forgot his lines, knows that he does nothing without coordinating with the Western right. So what we've got here is a concerted effort to undermine not just the covenant process, but the quasi-governing structures of the Anglican Communion by a right-wing party that has begun to fear that the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada will never be punished for treating gay and lesbian Christians like human beings."
The remaining members of the Standing Committee are:
- Archbishop Rowan Williams of England (chair);
- Archbishop Philip Aspinall of Australia;
- Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda;
- Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the U.S.-based Episcopal Church;
- Archbishop Barry Morgan of Wales;
- Bishop James Tengatenga of Central Africa (ACC chair);
- Canon Elizabeth Paver of England (ACC vice chair);
- The Rev. Ian Douglas, clerical representative of the Episcopal Church;
- Anthony Fitchett, lay representative of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia;
- Dato Stanley Isaacs, lay representative of the Province of South East Asia;
- Bishop Azad Marshall, episcopal representative of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East;
- Philippa Amable of West Africa;
- Bishop Kumara Illangasinghe of Ceylon; and
- Nomfundo Walaza of Southern Africa.