Anglican Primates End Meeting with Pastoral Letter and Call to Prayer
Episcopal News Service. March 9, 2001 [2001-58]
James Solheim
(ENS) At the end of their week-long retreat in the mountains of western North Carolina, the primates of the Anglican Communion issued a "pastoral letter and call to prayer" that acknowledged the many issues they face as church leaders and expressed a determination to move beyond talk to a specific plan of action.
In what it called "a time of widespread fragmentation," the March 9 letter said that one of the great benefits of the Primates' Meeting was "to address the problems of mission and evangelism, not in mutual isolation, but through the patience and generosity that are the marks of the life of God amongst us."
The primates heard grim reports on the HIV/AIDS pandemic and responded by "initiating intensive coordinated action." A similar
Addressing "alienated groups with the church's own life," the primates said that "some of our number spoke of the difficulties of those who are estranged from others because of changes in theology and practice--especially with regard to the acceptance of homosexual activity and the ordination of practicing homosexuals--that they believe to be unfaithful to the gospel of Christ."
The primates resolved, as they did at their meeting in Portugal last year, to "show responsibility toward each other and to seek to avoid actions that might damage the credibility of our mission in the world."
New role for primates?
Two of the primates--Drexel Gomez of the West Indies and Maurice Sinclair of the Southern Cone in South America--arrived at the Kanuga Conference Center with proposals that would call on the primates to take action against what they call "a tear in the fabric of the Anglican Communion" as a direct result of churches promoting a "liberal agenda."
The proposals in their book of essays, To Mend the Net, would call on the primates to warn colleagues who consider "innovations in doctrine, discipline or ethics, even on an experimental basis." The primates could offer "guidelines" to the erring province and, if there is no response, call on the archbishop of Canterbury to consider demoting the province to observer status in international meetings. In the most severe action, the primates could seek suspension of communion with the province and even start a new Anglican body to replace the province.
Sinclair and Gomez introduced their proposals at an evening discussion session, inviting a response from Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold and other primates. Archbishop of Canterbury George L. Carey said that he intended to refer the proposals to a recently appointed Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission, which has been asked to consider them as part of a discussion package on the role of primates for their meeting next year, as "a contribution to the discussion on the exercise of authority in the communion."
Honesty and candour
In a statement released at the end of the meeting, Griswold said that he was "deeply grateful" for the Pastoral Letter and Call to Prayer and the action plan. "It is my sense that, just as we in the Episcopal Church are learning to live on a much deeper and increasingly costly level the mystery of communion, that same deepening has occurred here in the course of the Primates' Meeting," he said.
"We are in the process of growing up in Christ, and in our communion with one another," he added. "The is meeting has been one step in an ongoing journey... a time of deep joy and discovery." The meeting was also "a humbling experience," he said, filled with stories of a suffering church in many parts of the world.
Archbishop Robin Eames of Ireland, senior primate at the meeting, said that the meeting was characterized by "a refreshing honesty and candour," and that the "collegiality, friendship and understanding of each other as primates has never been greater."
Debt and AIDS priorities
Assuming his role as the international spokesman on the debt burden of the world's most impoverished nations, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Southern Africa told his colleagues that "I stand before you more convinced than ever that we are running out of time. Debt and poverty are a critical human rights emergency."
The action plan adopted by the primates calls for formation of a working party to consider "advocacy goals, objectives and strategies" and the use of current networks and coalitions to address the issues. The working party will also seek to find ways that churches might implement the Lambeth Conference resolution calling on dioceses to fund international development "at a level of at least 0.7% of annual total diocesan income."
On the issue of HIV/AIDS, members of the Anglican Communion "are encouraged to coordinate a Communion strategy" that would provide advocacy and mobilization of resources.
The Action Plan also calls for:
*a special working party to advise the primates on issues in theological education;
*monitoring the situation in the Congo and Iran;
*preparing a discussion for the next meeting on the role of the primates and the Primates' Meeting;
*exploration of the unity within the communion and "the process of coming to a common theological mind and shared proclamation in a culturally diverse communion."
"This is a crucial and testing time for our Communion," the primates concluded in their pastoral letter, "but also a time of vitality, generosity and growth."
New level of growth
Professor Ian Douglas of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts said in an interview that the meeting offered "no big surprises" but was "a quite positive step forward." Rather than respond to a narrow set of proposals, he said, the primates placed the continuing discussion of their role in a broader context. And for the first time they established an action plan. "That is the real exercise of leadership and authority," he said. "It represents a new level of growth and development as a body."
Douglas gives Carey much of the credit, calling this meeting of primates "one of his finest hours." Noting that the archbishop did not bend to pressures from either side, "he demonstrated a level of leadership that should be applauded," Douglas said.
He said that Carey's opening sermon on "The Test of Leadership" posed the issue for the primates as they reconsider their role. In the sermon, Carey used the analogy of a boy whose attempts to run away from home were thwarted by his mother's admonition not to cross the road. "Let's see the child as the community, the church wrestling with the task of interpreting the faith once handed to the saints and the process of applying that living faith to our culture. Leaving home but not really leaving the block is the tension felt by many as we struggle to be contemporary Christians," Carey said.