Primates communiqué, Windsor report are 'study in contrasts,' House of Deputies president says
Episcopal News Service. February 10, 2009 [021009-02]
Bonnie Anderson, president of the Episcopal Church's House of Deputies, said in a statement February 9 that the recent communiqué from the Anglican Communion's Primates meeting stands in contrast to a report from the Windsor Continuation Group released the same day.
Anderson said that the primates' message "adopted both a new tone and a broader set of theological concerns" that was markedly different from previous communiqué which she said often set "deadlines, made veiled threats and attempted unwelcome incursions into the affairs of the Anglican Consultative Council and member churches." By contrast, the continuation group's report, Anderson said, was a "step backward" and reflected a yearning for "for greater ecclesial centralization achieved by concentrating power in the hands of bishops and archbishops, further marginalizing the laity and diminishing the influence of member churches in the common life of our communion."
Anderson noted that the continuation group said there is what it called an "ecclesial deficit" in the communion and she said the group proposed to remedy it by strengthening the three of the four instruments of communion: the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates Meeting and the decennial Lambeth Conference of bishops.
"The instrument they have overlooked is the Anglican Consultative Council; the only instrument that includes lay people, priests and deacons and that has a constitution that codifies its membership, procedures and authority," Anderson said.
The full text of Anderson's statement is available here on her website.
Details about the communiqué and the continuation group's report were reported by ENS here.
The primates' communiqué is available here. The Windsor Continuation Group report is available here.