Disaffected, breakaway bishops plan September meeting
Episcopal News Service. June 1, 2007 [060107-02]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
Bishops of seven self-identified Anglican organizations have been invited by Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan to attend a meeting September 25-28, in part to "initiate discussion of the creation of an 'Anglican Union'" such as the one envisioned by the Primates of the Global South when they called for a new "ecclesiastical structure of the Anglican Communion in the USA."
Duncan issued the invitation in his role as moderator of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes (NACDP), also known as the Anglican Communion Network. The gathering is being called the "first-ever Common Cause Council of Bishops."
In addition to his fellow bishops in that organization, Duncan invited the bishops of the Anglican Mission in the Americas, which appears to be a combination of the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) and the Anglican Coalition in Canada; the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA); the Anglican Network in Canada; the Anglican Province of America; Forward in Faith North America; and the Reformed Episcopal Church.
According to a release from the NACDP, Common Cause was formed in 2004 and connects "Anglican bodies" that "have committed to working together for 'a Biblical, missionary and united Anglicanism in North America.'" The members have written and adopted a common theological statement and articles of federation.
Duncan wrote in his invitation that the gathering will "signal a new level of 'walking together' both with each other and with the wider Anglican world."
He noted that the gathering will immediately follow the September meeting of the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops, set for September 20-25 in New Orleans. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will meet with the House. Duncan predicted that the Episcopal Church bishops will at that meeting reiterate decisions that, he wrote, "will mean that the Church is 'walking apart' from the rest of the Anglican Communion."
NACDP spokesperson Jenny Noyes told ENS May 31 that Episcopal Church bishops who belong to the organization will decide on their own if they will attend the New Orleans House of Bishops meeting.
In his invitation, Duncan wrote that the purpose of the gathering was fivefold:
- "to take the Common Cause Partnership to the next level of development in mission together;"
- "to showcase ministry initiatives of any of the partners that might be shared with all the partners;"
- "to share understandings of the purpose and role of bishops such that some common guidelines for the making of bishops relative to numbers of communicants and congregations might be developed;"
- "to consider whether a permanent Common Cause College of Bishops might be created, in order that ever greater levels of communication, cooperation and collaboration can be built;" and
- "to initiate discussion of the creation of an 'Anglican Union' among the partners, moving forward the vision of the Primates of the Global South for a new 'ecclesiastical structure of the Anglican Communion in the USA.'"
In September 2006, a self-selecting group of Anglican Primates who lead Provinces in the global south met in Kigali, Rwanda and issued a statement in which they called for such a structure because of what they called a "doctrinal conflict" that was causing "a growing number of congregations and dioceses in the USA and Canada who believe that their Anglican identity is at risk" to appeal to them for help "so that they might remain faithful members of the Communion."
The communiqué was not signed, but was followed by a list of 20 "Provinces Represented," including Burundi, Central Africa, the Church of South India, Congo, Indian Ocean, Jerusalem and Middle East, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Rwanda, Southern Africa, South East Asia, Southern Cone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, West Africa, and the West Indies. Bangladesh and the Philippines were listed as "Not present but represented." There are 38 Provinces in the Anglican Communion.
It is unclear how many, or which, Primates actually endorsed the communiqué or saw it in its final form prior to publication on the Internet. After the statement was released, at least two Primates, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Southern Africa and Episcopal Church in the Philippines Prime Bishop Ignacio C. Soliba, disavowed the communique.
Duncan's invitation acknowledges that the "Common Cause Council of Bishops "lacks the voice of the laity [and] is not a full synod of the Common Cause Partners, but it is the next step agreed upon by the Common Cause Roundtable."