Peterson Expresses Gratitude, Frustration at Hong Kong Meeting of Anglican Consultative Council
Episcopal News Service. September 17, 2002 [2002-215-2]
Secretary General John Peterson laid out sources of gratitude and frustration in his opening address at the 12th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in Hong Kong September 17.
After thanking the 'youngest of all provinces in the Anglican Communion' for its hospitality, Peterson sketched the influences on the life and work of its 38 members in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the United States last September 11 and the continuing conflict in the Middle East.
Among his frustrations, he cited a decision at the meeting of the Communion's primates at Kanuga last year to make the HIV/AIDS pandemic 'a top priority.' Peterson said that he was 'bitterly disappointed at how slowly this whole process has unfolded. To be honest, we were promised funds to establish this programme in each one of the African provinces, but the promised funds never came through.' He said that it took a grant from the Parthenon Trust to launch the program. 'In Africa AIDS will not be defeated by the governments but by the church,' he said.
With strong support from Archbishop of Canterbury George L. Carey, the Compass Rose Society has set a goal of $20 million to provide an endowment to support new initiatives and special projects. The support from the society and Trinity Church in New York has bolstered support from ACC members who are wrestling with financial crises that is making full support difficult. 'Regardless of the reasons, these shortfalls have a devastating effect on the ministry of the Communion and our inter-relatedness to each other,' Peterson said. He called on the member churches 'to be more financially responsible to each other as a Communion.'
Peterson highlighted an interim report, 'Traveling Together in God's Mission,' that asks provinces of the Communion to consider six broad areas of mission--Islam, Developing Anglicanism, a Communion in Mission; the journey towards wholeness and fulness of life; mission and justice-making and peace-building; money power and Christian mission; and evangelism.