Review Team Wrestles with Complex Role of the Archbishop of Canterbury
Episcopal News Service. February 2, 2001 [2001-27]
James Solheim
(ENS) A review team examining the future of the Office of Archbishop of Canterbury has entered a new phase, issuing a consultation paper in December and moving into a fresh round of consultations. It expects to issue a final report and recommendations next summer.
The review was requested personally by the current archbishop, George Carey, who asked that the current scope of the office be examined and recommendations be shaped for the future.
The eight-member team has considered oral and written submissions from sources among the 164 countries represented in the worldwide Anglican Communion and its December report distilled the views expressed. "As a result of our continuing work, members of the Review Team have gained a much fuller picture of the demands on the time and resources of the Office of the Archbishop," said Lord Hurd, who chairs the team.
Sifting through the issues raised during the first stage, Hurd said that the team would "welcome further evidence before moving towards conclusions of our own in due course."
Identifying issues
"On some crucial points, in particular the relationship between the archbishop and the Anglican Communion, there are quite wide differences of approach among those whom we have consulted," said Lord Hurd in his introduction to the paper. He said that the team came to understand "more clearly than when we began why the archbishop set up our group. The accumulation of tasks falling upon him is already formidable and unlikely to diminish." Hurd said that the team was seeking to "propose a framework which will make possible the unique form of leadership which our church requires."
In summarizing some of the obvious challenges of the archbishop's role in the life of the church and the nation, the report pointed to:
* the traditional roles, especially those connected with speaking to the nation, have become more demanding;
* growth of the Anglican Communion is imposing deeper obligations, including extensive travel and response to disputes and difficulties within the Anglican family;
* an interfaith role in dealing with issues of poverty and development in a world of increasing globalization;
* oversight of the Diocese of Canterbury, supported by two suffragan bishops, and metropolitan of the Southern Province of the Church of England;
* a national role in his capacity as Primate of All England, serving as chaplain to the Royal Family and pastor to the nation;
* a need to establish relations with other church in England and elsewhere because of increasing diversity.
Considering options
The report sketched several options that have emerged at this stage of the review--continue the present arrangement, perhaps consolidating the staffs at Lambeth and the Church of England's Church House; or identify those areas where the archbishop alone can make a contribution.
"Events have been driving archbishops of Canterbury to assume new roles without reduction of old ones and excluding the opportunity to stand back and assess how the roles should be addressed and balanced collectively," the report concluded.
The aims of the review ranges between on one hand "simply devising a less demanding regime for the archbishops and, on the other, trying more ambitiously to attain a greater coherence by balancing the English and global roles more harmoniously and fruitfully, using better staff work and planning to that end," the report said. "In all cases, it would be necessary to explore how far it is feasible to satisfy both English and Communion requirements simultaneously, and resolve potential conflict between them," it concluded.