Windsor process, covenant to top Anglican Consultative Council agenda
Episcopal News Service. April 3, 2009 [040309-03]
Matthew Davies
The Anglican Communion's most representative legislative body -- the Anglican Consultative Council -- will consider two documents at its upcoming meeting that "are key to discerning a way forward for the Anglican Communion in light of recent stresses caused by differences over matters of human sexuality," according to an April 3 news release from the Anglican Communion Office.
The two documents to be discussed by the ACC when it convenes May 1-13 in Kingston, Jamaica, are the proposed Anglican covenant and the Windsor Continuation Group's final report that was made public during the early February meeting of the leaders, known as primates, of the communion's provinces.
The latest draft of an Anglican covenant is expected to be released next week ahead of the ACC meeting. The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner, one of two Episcopal Church members on the Covenant Design Group, told ENS April 3, at the conclusion of the design group's latest meeting, that it is "warmly commending this draft" to the ACC, which is the only communion body with the authority to ask the Anglican provinces to sign onto the covenant.
The Windsor Continuation Group has been charged with addressing questions arising from the 2004 Windsor Report, a document that recommended ways in which the Anglican Communion can maintain unity amid diversity of opinions, especially relating to human sexuality issues and theological interpretations. Its report calls for the development of a "pastoral council" and supported Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams' plan to appoint "pastoral visitors" to assist in healing and reconciliation within the communion.
The continuation group also addressed the moratoria on same-gender blessings, cross-border interventions and the ordination of gay and lesbian people to the episcopate. "If a way forward is to be found and mutual trust to be re-established, it is imperative that further aggravation and acts which cause offence, misunderstanding or hostility cease," the group's report states. At their February meeting, the primates called for "gracious restraint" with respect to such actions.
The ACC's purpose is to provide consultation and guidance on policy issues, including mission and ecumenism, for the Anglican Communion. Formed in 1969, the council includes clergy and lay people, as well as bishops, among its delegates.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told ENS that she anticipates the Kingston meeting "will be an opportunity for reconnecting with old friends, meeting new ones, and learning more about the vast and diverse ministry within the Anglican Communion."
Jefferts Schori, who will attend the meeting in her role as a member of the ACC/Primates Joint Standing Committee, said she expects the delegates "will return to their provinces with a deeper understanding of our interconnectedness as Anglicans and the distinctly different realities of our varied contexts."
The ACC membership includes from one to three persons from each of the Anglican Communion's 38 provinces. Where there are three members, there is a bishop, a priest and a lay person. Where fewer members are appointed, preference is given to lay membership.
The Episcopal Church is represented by Josephine Hicks of North Carolina; the Rev. Ian Douglas of Massachusetts; and Bishop Catherine Roskam of New York.
Hicks is a member of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council and serves as chair of its Administration and Finance committee. Douglas, also a member of Executive Council and its International Concerns committee, is Angus Dun professor of World Christianity at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Roskam is bishop suffragan of the Diocese of New York.
The main working sessions at the ACC meeting will be divided into information plenary sessions where material will be presented, and discernment groups. "The whole meeting will be supported by Bible study, prayer and small-group discussion," Douglas said, "allowing for lots of opportunity for conversation." There will also be two business sessions scheduled for legislative action.
Hicks said the discernment groups "will undoubtedly help facilitate thoughtful conversation, and I am pleased that the planning group adopted that format for this meeting."
The discernment groups are an addition to the ACC's usual format. Those groups will be modeled on the small-group process known as "indaba" that was used during last summer's Lambeth Conference of bishops. Based on a Zulu concept, indaba means purposeful discussion and refers to a group meeting where differences can be aired and a consensus agreement reached.
Douglas said that because the ACC is a consultative body the format cannot be directly appropriated from the Lambeth indaba process. "It's a different community with a different mandate," he said, "but the communion learned some new ways of coming together at the Lambeth Conference that focused on conversation, worship, prayer and Bible study being foremost."
Roskam, who will be attending her last ACC meeting, said she hopes the gathering will be as constructive as Lambeth "for the strengthening of Anglican relations through the increase of mutual understanding, and the deepening of connection, and that our differences will be subordinated to our shared commitment to serve God’s mission in the world for which Christ gave himself."
In a letter sent to all ACC members, the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, said: "Our 11 days together will provide an opportunity for us to engage with the mission of the Anglican Communion through the work of its commissions, networks and working groups as well as experience something of the life and vitality of the local Anglican church."
The ACC will begin with a quiet morning May 2 led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, following a trend adopted at the Lambeth Conference and the Primates Meeting. The daily Bible study groups will explore the gospel of Mark.
The ACC's opening service will be held on Sunday, May 3 at the National Arena in Kingston, and on Sunday, May 10, ACC delegates will participate in Mission Sunday at various churches across the Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, according to the ACO release. The closing service will be held at the Cathedral of St. Jago de la Vega in Spanish Town, on May 12.
Douglas, who was a member of the Lambeth Conference Design Group, said that the engagement with the Church of the Province of the West Indies and the local diocese is similar to that of the hospitality initiative that preceded the Lambeth Conference. During that initiative, many bishops from around the communion spent time in experiencing the hospitality of an English, Scottish or Welsh diocese.
The ACC is one of the four instruments of communion, the others being the Archbishop of Canterbury (who serves as president of the ACC), the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, and the Primates Meeting.
The chair of the ACC is Bishop John Paterson of Auckland, New Zealand. Kearon serves as the secretary to ACC meetings.
According to the ACO release, all plenary sessions and worship services will be open. Daily news briefings will be held and a final news briefing is scheduled for Tuesday, May 12.
At its last meeting in Nottingham, England in June 2005, the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada representatives had voluntarily withdrawn themselves from the meeting and attended only as observers following a request from the primates. At ACC-14, all 38 provinces are expected to be represented.
For Hicks, who was part of the Episcopal Church's Nottingham delegation, the Jamaica meeting will be an important opportunity "to continue to build relationships, learn more about the work of the networks that are doing so much good work throughout the communion, and have good, constructive discussions about the covenant, the Windsor Continuation Process, and other issues we need to work on together."
Douglas said he continues "to thank God and the leadership of the Anglican Communion for being open to new ways of coming together across our differences in service to God's mission in the world.
"Deep and honest conversation informed by prayer and Scripture are oriented towards what God wants us to be and do in the wider world. It is the way forward for an emerging Anglican Communion and the vision driving the agenda for ACC."
Further information about the ACC meeting is available here. The daily program is available here. A list of participants is available here.