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Afro-Anglicans from Around the World Gathered in Toronto at Third International Conference

Episcopal News Service. August 1, 2005 [080105-1-A]

Daphne Mack

Diverse in their languages, yet united by their faith, more than 250 Black Anglicans from Africa and the Diaspora met in Toronto, Ontario July 20-27 for the third International Conference on Afro- Anglicanism.

"History drew me to this conference, and its relevance for Black Anglicans the world over," said the Rev. Vernon LaFleur, a Guyanan in the diocese of Toronto. "I came to learn and participate in a way that would have some impact on the final communiqué of the conference."

The Afro-Anglicanism conference began in 1985, when more than 200 Black Anglicans, bishops, clergy and laypersons from 17 countries and five continents met in Barbados. Recognizing that there were many experiences and concerns in ministry that they shared, they decided to hold gatherings of Afro-Anglicans every ten years. The initial gathering also brought forth the Codrington Consensus, a statement adopted by participants in the Barbados meeting.

Conference participants, including nearly 30 youth and young adults, came together under the theme "Celebrating the Gifts of Afro-Anglicanism" with the following objectives:

To re-visit the Codrington Consensus and identify what has been achieved;

To embrace the Afro-Anglican ministry of reconciliation based on the spirit of the Lambeth Conferences;

To affirm the Black Anglican community living in Canada;

To support and promote the spiritual wellness of Afro-Anglican clergy and laity;

To engage each other in learning and mutual understanding;

To go forth with a renewed sense of mission in Christ to our respective parts of the world.

Bishop Orris Walker of Long Island, chairman of the conference planning committee, welcomed attendees to what he described as "a spiritual journey." He introduced several dignitaries, including Mayor Hazel McCallion of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada's sixth largest city, who told participants, "The Christian Church and Anglican Church are under challenge and prayers without action are worth nothing."

"If we want peace in the world, then the Western World must eliminate poverty and illness," McCallion said, "We must support the NGOs [non- governmental organizations]."

Setting the tone of the conference were the Rev. George Brandt, rector of St. Michael's Church in New York City, and the Rev. Dr. Kortright Davis of Howard University's School of Divinity in Washington, D.C., who presented the history of the conference and reviewed the Codrington Consensus.

Fundamental marker

The opening Eucharist at St. James' Cathedral took on a spirit of celebration, with steel and African drummers and praise dancers.

In his sermon, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town, Primate of South Africa, said, "I have been pondering what it means to be an Afro-Anglican...because identity is a fundamental marker of our selves. People taken from their homes have a unique journey to find an authentic past to call one's own. My message to the conference is to hold on to each other."

"We have a new potential to build a bridge within the Anglican Communion," he added. "What we have in common is far greater than what divides us."

God's fullness

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, retired Bishop Suffragan Barbara Harris of Massachusetts, Ndungane, and the Rev. John Peterson of Washington National Cathedral, former Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, were panelists for an exploration of "The Anglican Communion, Our Global Village."

"Communion is God's own life embodied in a community of faith," said Griswold. "At this time, we have gone beyond Anglican civility to a new place of really wrestling with differences in a much more substantial way. This is the only way in which we can actually discover what God is up to in one another's realities.

"God's fullness, God's imagination is always unfolding, and the invitation that God holds out to us in the mystery of communion is to discover more fully the person of Christ in one another."

"I think we have a number of issues with which we continue to wrestle," Harris remarked. "I hope we will, in good faith, wrestle with those issues in their broader context and not become so focused on one or another aspect of an issue such as human sexuality that we ignore the broader concern that needs to be addressed. We are in this federation a fragile marriage of autonomous churches, and I think that what is lacking among us is mutual respect."

Ndungane, saying he felt “honored and privileged” to be a part of the province of Southern Africa, reiterated his earlier message of perseverance. "Hold on to each other, and hold on to the Lord of our Church as he shows us a new way of moving forward," he declared.

Stressing the urgency and relevance of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Peterson said, "For us not to tackle the problem of hunger, poverty, HIV/AIDS and malaria is scandalous It seems to me to not consider or attempt to deal with the reasons is actually a nail in our coffin."

Peterson charged those gathered to make this their "top agenda."

"If we don't do this," he said, "I believe as a communion we are failing our churches, our people, the ecumenical community and this great communion and no wonder there is terrorism today."

In another panel entitled "The State of the Anglican Communion, in a post Windsor Report World," the Rev. Dr. Michael Battle, part of the writing team for the Episcopal Church's response to the Windsor Report and its representative to ACC-13, said that "To Set Our Hope on Christ" was not "trying to be academic in a sense, or representing all the various sides in a cultural war. It was basically trying to be descriptive theologically, and did give an explanation of the theological and biblical reasoning, focusing on the transitions that are often difficult for holy communities trying to understand God's Spirit that often moves in profound ways that take us a while to get caught up to.

"We used the paradigm of the early Church, the Jewish Christian Church trying to understand the Gentiles. In Scripture, everything was for the Jews, and yet the vision was always to include the Gentiles."

Also part of the panel was Dr. Esther Mombo, academic dean of St. Paul's United Theological College and one of the authors of the Windsor Report. "Dr. Mombo is really a voice crying in the wilderness," Battle said. "She gave insights into how Anglicans, especially in the Global South, do not need to be participating in cultural wars that only demean the African community, and how it is so easy to criticize the other and allow problems in our own back yard to be exacerbated. She pointed to issues in Africa that really need to be addressed and ministered to, instead of these other issues which are being dangled before them for monetary gain."

Youthful space

Young people made their voices heard during daily informal afternoon sessions called “Youthful Space” and at a panel discussion entitled "Claiming Elijah's mantle: Young adults and the life of the church,” led by the Rev. Dr. Michael Clarke, rector of St. Mary the Virgin in the British Virgin Islands.

Clarke used the story of Elijah's challenge to the young Elisha to illustrate that, to be relevant to today's youth, the church must provide effective tools that develop a wider perspective of faith.

"Where are the prophets of our church," Clarke said. "Where are the ones to call young people on their journey."

Youth panelists Tammy Taylor of Canada, Sadie Goddard of Barbados, Kebalepile Matlhako of South Africa, and Randy Callender of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, shared their perspective on what the church needs to do to retain the young.

"Opening the doors of the churches to youth is important," Taylor said. "Give youth a voice in the Anglican Church."

Matlhako said that there isn't much of a platform for youth and it's causing them to leave.

"We like shortcuts and we can be impatient," he said. "But we need you adults to be more patient and listen to us so we can explore ideas together.

"We are growing up in an age of questioning everything and accepting nothing," Goddard said. "We need adults to help us understand what it is to be Anglican."

"We are asking that you teach us how to get closer to God," Callendar added.

Perspectives on human sexuality

The panel "Perspectives on Human Sexuality” generated a lengthy but respectful dialogue. Panelists included Bishop John Holder of Barbados; Brandt; the Rev. Robyn Franklin Vaughn, chaplain at Howard University; Atu Yalley, seminarian at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the Rev. Olive Baker of the Diocese of Toronto.

"We have been taught that human sexuality is divine," Holder said.

Baker stressed the importance of educating our children about their bodies, "reminding them that they [their bodies] are temples of God."

"Sex needs to be preached on the pulpit and needs to be taught in the seminaries," she said. "We must create a safe place for young people to go to speak about sex."

Brandt shared the perspective of a rector in a church in New York City with six same-sex couples with children in the parish.

"We need to revisit the original sin," said Yalley. "Why has the church been silent while our children are exposed to overt sex?"

He also spoke of sex being used as a weapon in warfare, citing the abuse of women and children in Darfur.

Franklin Vaughn shared stories of having to talk to 22-year-olds about their bodies for the first time, and having weekly chats with a young man who is contemplating suicide because he is confused about his sexuality.

Davis, who moderated the panel, remarked that it is important to "remember that we are all spectrums of human sexuality."

Bible study and workshops

Thought provoking daily Bible study sessions called "Encountering the Word” were led by the Rev. Dr. Randall Bailey of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Rev. Dr. Ann Holmes Redding, director of faith formation and renewal at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, Washington. Some of the lessons looked at women, sexism and classism in the Bible.

Some of the workshops dealt with indigenous spirituality, human rights, new democracies, lay ministry, HIV/AIDS and the Black family.

Voices from the conference

"The feeling of unity, not uniformity, make me hopeful because I was afraid that our differences with respect to different issues would be greater than our unity of purpose, said the Rev. Jayne Oasin, social justice officer at the Episcopal Church Center. “But I left feeling that we had an increased ability to face some of the tougher societal issues such as poverty and famine—that they could be addressed even as we continued to debate and discuss some of our tougher differences,"

She said that meeting two women from the Church of England who are also involved in anti-racism work has resulted in a new collaboration.” This was perfect for me because anytime you do anti-racism and anti-oppression work, it's very easy to feel that you're the only one in the world doing this work because the nature of oppression is that it's isolating," she explained. "So when you find people in very different parts of the world who are facing and successfully tackling similar work it makes you feel you have allies in the fight against oppression."

The Rev. Vincent Shamo, chaplain at the University of California at Irvine, said he has been looking for an opportunity to see what others are thinking. He said he has a passion for working with youth and wanted to see how "we are raising the next generation of Africans and African-Americans in the ministry of this church and God's ministry."

"The conference has changed the work I do for the Episcopal Church because I was able to connect a name to a face and to be aware of how global our community truly is," said Sonia Omulepu, mission education coordinator for the Episcopal Church's Office of Anglican and Global Relations. "What struck me most profoundly, however, was the fact that we were able to engage in conversation on sensitive issues even though there were disparate points of view. We listened to each other in sisterly and brotherly love in spite of our differences.

“This confirms for me that we carry the Anglican Communion in our hearts and minds, and that we have the ability to unite rather than divide,” she said. “In essence, the Afro-Anglicanism Conference is another instrument of unity."

The full text of the Toronto Accord, which highlights the areas of concern and provides the foundation for the 2015 Afro-Anglican conference, follows below:

THE TORONTO ACCORD

3RD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AFRO-ANGLICANISM

JULY 20-27, 2005

TORONTO CANADA

INTRODUCTION

For eight days of prayer, listening, reflection and fellowship, over 275 Afro-Anglicans gathered in Toronto, Ontario, to give support, among other things, to a conference objective of providing increased visibility to people of the African Diaspora in Canada. The participants hailed from eleven provinces of the Anglican Communion – the Anglican Church of Canada, the Church of England, the Provinces of Central America, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Southern Africa, West Africa, West Indies, and the Episcopal Church of the United States. The conference welcomed non-Afro-Anglicans who came to share our faith journey.

As we gathered to explore our current realities, our theme – “Celebrating the Gifts of Afro-Anglicanism”, helped us to explore current issues while charting a course for the future.

We reflected that each time we have gathered, Barbados in 1985 and Cape Town in 1995, we have made a fresh connection to our African roots. The vision, of the two in whose names we come together, Robert Spencer Chester Powell and Walter Decoster Dennis, has remained a vital and important historical legacy.

We were blessed by the contribution of great insight from our keynoters, plenary speakers, panelists, preachers, reflectors and the generous number of younger members of the community. We have been blessed by the warmth and hospitality extended by all, and have valued and appreciated the work of the International Planning Committee, Program Committee and Local Host Committee and the many contributors and financial benefactors.

We cannot help but note that similar to our past two gatherings, we met at a time of great turmoil and unrest in civil society, and in the Anglican Communion.

OUR COMMON HERITAGE

In the city of Toronto, we appreciated the historical fact that Anglicanism, in the form of a European subculture, has communicated with a variety of African cultures on the continent of Africa and in the Diaspora. Out of that, Afro-Anglicanism was born. At the dawn of this third millennium, where the world is aggressively becoming a global village, and where there is a risk of losing our God-given diversity through globalization, we felt the need to reflect on the virtues, vibrancy and vitality of our common heritage.

Afro-Anglican identity may not mean that we all have a set of shared values; but it definitely means that we share common human concerns. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is a matter of concern for all of us, whether we live in Africa, in the UK, in the Caribbean, or in North America. People in our communities who are infected, do not have access to adequate health care, and those who are affected are getting poorer. Our children have less access to good schools. All of us are struggling with the integration of our young people into the current structures of the church. The vast majority of our people live in abject poverty. Today, experiences of marginalization and exclusion are yet not unknown to all of us.

Afro-Anglicanism is an ideal context not only for cultural interaction, but also for profound discussion and discernment on how to make our world a better place in which to live. We should continue to value and celebrate our differences, and avoid temptations of divisiveness by enforcing patterns of uniformity. Our Anglican Communion needs to be a listening church based on the solidarity of compassionate love.

AFRO-ANGLICAN SPIRITUALITY

We have been richly blessed by the celebration of the Word of God through the corporate study of Holy Scripture. We have realized in our time together the wealth of common experiences and the depth of spiritual fervor and inspiration which this common sharing has afforded us. Our commitment to read, hear, and share has been reinforced. We wish to commend the regular weekly practice of Bible Study in every Afro-Anglican congregation.

Our young people in attendance have expressed their yearning for the church to more boldly proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. They long to be part of a church that seeks the truth of Christ and proclaims it to a world that is filled with deceit, hypocrisy, and ambiguity. They long to be part of a church that does good by being just in a world full of injustice. They long to be part of a church that witnesses to the world the beauty of God..

We have taken careful note of the many calls from our young people for a clearer, more consistent and exemplary pattern of moral, spiritual and relational guidance. We call on all to listen and to re-double every effort in the careful nurture of our younger ones in the paths of Christian maturity and human dignity.

Ours is the task to leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the highest levels of mutual respect and acceptance are fostered and strengthened in our relationships, whether among generations, or provinces, or congregations, or individuals. We deem this commitment to be of the utmost importance, especially at such time as this, when tensions and stresses within the Anglican Communion are at a high level. We trust that our efforts to build stronger and more effective bridges of communication, understanding and inter-dependence will be enhanced. This should be undergirded by that unity of spirit and bond of peace that has already been won for us in Jesus Christ.

HUMAN SEXUALITY

We have wrestled with deep sincerity with the complex issues of human sexuality. We have sought to explore very faithfully all the moral and spiritual imperatives which are before us as Christians. The vast differences of approach have been evident in our dialogue. Nevertheless, we have not departed from the sacred truths of our common humanity. We have all been created in God’s image. God’s compassion and love are equally extended to all whom God has created. The mysteries enshrined in the nature of human life are transcended only by the mystery of God’s Incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth. We hold tenaciously to the supremacy of the love of God made known to us in the Man from Galilee (John 3:16).

We will endeavor to work patiently and compassionately for a fuller understanding of II Cor. 5:19 –“God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their imperfections against them, but offering to us the ministry of reconciliation.”

We yearn together for the day when the human body will become the symbol, and source, and sacrament of unity among us and no longer a cause of division or an instrument of strife.

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

We were made aware of “life and death” issues related to socio-economic justice. We were urged to adopt the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s), which are understood as gospel imperatives, as a plan of action by which these issues are addressed.

The Millennium Development Goals, which can also be seen as “missional development goals”, provide a concrete plan as they are:

• People centered

• Time bound

• Measurable

• Achievable and

They all have political support since 189 countries have already endorsed them.

The Millennium Development Goals, as espoused by the United Nations, have the critical capacity to address some of the gender issues which the conference considered. They create an enabling environment to empower all the vulnerable but most especially women. They also seek to alleviate and eradicate poverty and hunger, child mortality and diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, while promoting gender equality, maternal health, education and environmental sustainability.

Therefore, we recommend that all the structures of the Anglican Communion adopt and implement them in partnership with governmental agencies and Non-Governmental and Faith Based Organizations.

We also stand in support of the joint WHO(World Health Organization)/UNICEF (United Nation’s Children’s Fund)/UNFPA(United Nation’s Fund for Population Activities) statement of 1997 against Female Genital Mutilation and we urge that this issue be considered at the proposed Anglican Congress in 2007, and at the Lambeth Conference of Bishops in 2008.

We were also reminded of the need to be stewards over God’s creation and the need to honor the call to protect the created heaven and earth for future generations. We stand in support of the Kyoto Protocol and we urge all nations on God’s earth to sign and implement the Protocol.

ANGLICAN CONCERNS

As a conference, we explored the layers of dispersed authority, the Instruments of Unity, “the bonds of affection”, the issues impacting autonomy within the Communion and explored, yet again, what it means to be Anglican at the present time.

Long before the Report of the Lambeth Commission on Communion, as Afro-Anglicans we have sought to live, work and meet following the principle of adiaphora (things which do not make a difference)– as it has been an important working principle of our conferences since the beginning. We again lived in the tension of agreeing to disagree respectfully and in a non-harmful and non-destructive manner. Because we genuinely value the bonds of filial affection as Afros within our Anglican differences, we believe that we can offer a model of a way of being to the entire Anglican Communion.

MISSION FOR THE FUTURE

As we go forward from Toronto, we leave with a strong sense of renewal and refreshment to continue in the struggle for justice, peace, and love. We have heard afresh the Good News of the Saving Word of God in Christ, and we have been made aware of the many bridges of reconciliation and wholeness that already exist among us. We pledge ourselves to strengthen and offer those bridges to the wider Anglican Communion.

Conscious as we are that we are part of an “Unfinished Church,” we call on all our brothers and sisters, especially our younger ones, to work with vigor, candor and constancy to continue in the building up of the Body of Christ. We give thanks to Almighty God for the inestimable blessings we have received.

We make a special call to our African brothers and sisters to do all in their power to strengthen the Communion and we pray that, with God’s enlivening and empowering grace, we will go forward with courage and mutual upliftment into the glorious future of the sons and daughters of the Living God, who is also Lord of the Church.

After spending this time together we are more convinced that God has called us to face the challenges of the future assured of God’s continuing support and encouragement.

Therefore with courage, we accept this challenge based on our recognition that God has been with us through this pilgrimage of life as an African people. We celebrate the many blessings that have been bestowed and give thanks for the strength of our ancestors who have brought us thus far on the way..

RESOLUTIONS

I. RESOLUTION ON MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

This conference calls upon all Churches in the Anglican Communion to adopt the Millennium Development Goals as issued by the United Nations to:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

• Achieve universal primary education

• Promote gender equality and empower women

• Reduce child mortality

• Improve maternal health

• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

• Ensure environmental sustainability

• Develop a global partnership for development

II. RESOLUTION ON YOUNG ADULTS

This conference affirms the ministry of Afro-Anglican young people and young adults and encourages their full participation in the life of the Church and calls upon the Church to more fully incorporate their participation within the total life of the Church.

III. RESOLUTION ON PEACE WITH JUSTICE

This conference calls upon all people of good will and the Churches of the Anglican Communion to exercise their influence to bring peace with justice in the troubled areas of the world such as Zimbabwe, the Darfur Region of the Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, Northern Uganda, and Haiti.

IV. RESOLUTION ON THE APPOINTMENT OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK

This conference celebrates the historic appointment of the Right Reverend Dr. John Sentamu as Archbishop of York and offers him our love, prayers and solidarity; and

Thanks Bishop Sentamu for his support and patronage of our 1995 Conference and this 2005 Toronto gathering of Afro-Anglicans.

V. RESOLUTION ON ANGLICAN CONGRESS

This conference endorses the request of the Archbishop of Cape Town that an Anglican Congress be held in Cape Town, South Africa in 2007; and This conference further requests members of its Executive Committee to make themselves available to assist in the planning of the Anglican Congress, if requested to do so by the Archbishop.

VI. RESOLUTION ON THE 4TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AFRO-ANGLICANISM

This conference recognizes the value of continuing dialogue and endorses the convening of a 4th International Conference no later than 2015 and suggests its first priority location should be the United Kingdom; and

Further, the conference recommends the convening of a Pre-Lambeth Conference of Afro-Anglican Bishops in 2008.

VII. RESOLUTION ON AN INSTRUMENT OF UNITY

This conference regrets that two provinces of the Anglican Communion, the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church in the USA, were excluded from full participation in the recent Anglican Consultative Conference (ACC) meeting in Nottingham at the request of the Primates.

We further believe that the ACC is too important an Instrument of Unity – reflective as it is of all orders of ministry in the church – to be hampered in its work of sustaining unity and total dialogue in the Communion.. We therefore decry this act of marginalization and request that the provinces have full access and participation in this forum.

VIII. RESOLUTION ON JURISDICTIONAL RESPECT

This conference supports the call of the Lambeth Commission on Communion upon those bishops who believe it is their duty to interfere in provinces, dioceses and parishes other than their own to stop such disruptive action; and

Further urges all bishops of the Anglican Communion to respect the territorial borders of such provinces, dioceses and parishes.

IX. EXTENDING FELLOWSHIP TO ALL PROVINCES

This conference affirms that we belong to one another and, therefore, we regret the absence of some of our brothers and sisters, particularly from Africa. In the spirit of reconciliation, we extend our love and desire to be in fellowship with all members of our Anglican Communion.

The 2005 Toronto Accord Committee

The Very Reverend Oge′ Beauvoir

The Reverend Walter Brownridge

The Reverend Dr. Kortright Davis

Canon Diane M. Porter

Timeya Seoka, Ph.D.

The Right Reverend Orris G. Walker, Jr.

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