HONG KONG: Provincial secretaries to address Communion's challenges, strengthen bonds
Episcopal News Service. August 23, 2007 [082307-02]
Matthew Davies
A meeting of the Anglican Communion's provincial secretaries -- the chief administrators for each Anglican province -- is being hosted by the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui (Anglican Church of Hong Kong) August 23-30.
The conference is an informal meeting designed to assist provincial secretaries in their professional development, to increase knowledge and experience of the challenges facing the 38 Anglican provinces and to strengthen bonds within the Communion.
Not every Anglican province employs a provincial secretary. In the Episcopal Church the duties are distributed among senior staff at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City.
The Rev. Dr. Gregory Straub, in his role as executive officer and secretary of the General Convention, and Canon Margaret Larom, as director of Anglican and Global Relations, are among those who fulfill the duties usually carried out by a provincial secretary.
Larom and Straub are joined by the Rev. Canon Anthony Jewiss, deputy executive officer of General Convention, in representing the Episcopal Church at the Hong Kong meeting.
This is the sixth provincial secretaries' conference, organized every three or four years by the Anglican Communion Office in London. The previous two conferences were held in Johannesburg in 2004 and Toronto in 2000.
The Hong Kong conference is expected to cover a broad range of issues affecting all provincial secretaries, such as relationships with primates, interactions with secular authorities, and the 2008 Lambeth Conference, according to an Anglican Church of Canada news release. The secretaries will also give updates on their provinces and learn about the work and mission of the church in Hong Kong.