Senior Primate in Anglican Communion Raises Issues of Identity
Episcopal News Service. September 26, 2003 [030926-2]
James Solheim
In an article in the Church of Ireland Gazette, Archbishop Robin Eames, the senior primate in the worldwide Anglican Communion, recently addressed some of the burning questions that he and other primates will face at special meeting October 15-16 at Lambeth Palace in London, called by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.
Acknowledging that the decision by the Episcopal Church's General Convention in Minneapolis to endorse the election of the church's first openly gay bishop "has provoked a crisis," it may be an identity crisis, opening questions of what holds the Anglican Communion together, Eames wrote.
No matter where one stands on the consecration of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire, Eames said it brings into question "the nature of unity and relationships of the diverse provinces which make up the Communion... by bringing to light very deep divisions on this question which have existed within Anglicanism and beyond." Those sharp divisions of opinion "compel a careful examination of the nature of the Anglican Communion and its structures," especially in light of suggestions that the Episcopal Church USA be expelled from the Communion.
Eames pointed to another crisis that raised issues of structure and the meaning of relationships-the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate in 1988. He was appointed by Archbishop of then-Canterbury Robert Runcie to head an international commission that was asked to prepare pastoral guidelines to encourage the "highest degree of communion" among the different provinces. "My experience then and since has convinced me that the fundamental issue for our Communion is: How do we live together with differing opinions, differences cultures, but maintain some semblance of active communion? I believe Anglicanism will survive this current controversy. The question is in what form?" He suggested that the Communion might need a similar set of guidelines now.
Pointing out that Anglicanism has "consistently rejected" attempts to establish regulations and rules, he said that instead it has opted for jealously guarding the autonomy of individual provinces. "Provincial government, usually through synodical structures and the exercise of episcopacy, has enshrined this degree of individuality," Eames said, with the common tie of communion with the See of Canterbury. "But I am unaware of any agreed rules governing such relationships beyond the desire to be in communion," he said. "Therefore when we talk of expulsion the question arises-expulsion from what?"
The election in New Hampshire is "clearly in breach of the majority opinion of the bishops in 1998" at the Lambeth Conference and "clearly contrary to the view of a large number of Anglicans," Eames noted, but "is there a tangible manner within the structures of our Communion as presently constituted to do more than express concern and criticism..." If there are no rules for membership in the Anglican Communion "there are no rules for expulsion of a member church," he argued.
The archbishop of Canterbury, as a "first among equals," could withhold an invitation to the Lambeth Conference or the Primates' Meeting "but the fact remains that no constitutional basis exists for the expulsion of any province from the Anglican Communion," Eames said.
While provincial autonomy "permits different attitudes to discipline and to ways of presenting the Gospel," he said that "Anglicans seek to preserve the identity or communion of a world family. This does not prevent disagreements between members of the family on what Scripture says, but it is far from saying we do not care about the primacy of Scripture," Eames added.
"Laws apart, opinions apart, and sensitivities apart, diversity of culture, practice and lifestyles have been and will most likely continue to be the experience of a world family such as the Anglican Communion," Eames concluded. "Perhaps the main question arising for us at this time is simply: How do we live with and how do we understand difference? What price unity?"