Anglican Consultative Council Affirms Resolution Stressing Interdependence
Episcopal News Service. September 26, 2002 [2002-220]
Margaret Rodgers, Member of the news team at the ACC meeting
(ENS) Members of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), meeting in Hong Kong September 15-26, strongly affirmed the resolution moved by Archbishop of Canterbury George L. Carey calling for individual dioceses in the Anglican Communion not to take unilateral action or adopt policies that would strain "our communion with one another." The resolution also urged all dioceses to keep in mind "the impact of their decisions within the wider Communion."
In his Presidential Address to the Anglican Consultative Council some days earlier, Carey drew attention to the decision in the Diocese of New Westminster, in the Anglican Church of Canada, calling for a liturgical rite to bless same-sex unions; actions taken by the Bishop of Pennsylvania in the Episcopal Church USA to depose a traditionalist rector; and the call for lay presidency at the Eucharist in the Diocese of Sydney, Australia.
When the vote on the resolution was taken, all hands were raised in favor, apart from one abstaining vote from Bishop Catherine Roskam, suffragan bishop of Diocese of New York.
The Rev. Don Bolen, official Vatican observer at the ACC meeting said that " the Catholic Church smiles on this resolution." He pointed out that local decisions and policies by individual dioceses can have ecumenical implications and that some local decisions can weaken the koinonia (communion) among the respective churches. Though he indicated Roman Catholic support for Carey's motion, he stated that it still fell far short of "ecumenical consultation."
Bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster gave his support to the motion and voted for it while indicating that he was concerned that the resolution did not appear to recognize the autonomy of the local church to determine priorities for mission in the local context. He cited a statement by the third ACC meeting in Dublin that declared that "the responsibility for mission in any place belongs primarily to the church in that place."
He told members that the English Reformation itself was "an example of local option." And he said that "it is important to balance the need for coherence and credibility with freedom for change--and change always begins locally." Ingham also said that he had consulted the provincial authorities in his part of the Anglican Church in Canada.
In response to the speeches, Carey thanked the Vatican observer for his supporting comments on the motion and also expressed his thanks to Ingham. "Theologically I disagree with the word ‘autonomy'," Carey said. "Autonomy means separate churches. Here I am closer to Fr Bolen than I am to Bishop Michael." He said that the ACC meeting "has been all about interdependence."
Carey said that Ingham did not consult widely about the issue--not consulting the Primates' Meeting, the ACC, or the Archbishop of Canterbury, the central planks of Anglican unity'.
The complete text of the resolution:
32. Superior Synods
This Council, being concerned about a range of matters of faith and order which have arisen since we last met, and having in mind the constant emphasis on mutual responsibility and interdependence in the resolutions of successive Lambeth Conferences, from the call in 1867 for "unity in faith and discipline…by due and canonical subordination of synods" (1867, IV) to the call in 1998 for a "common mind concerning ethical issues where contention threatens to divide…" (1998, IV 5 ( c ) ) calls upon:
1. Dioceses and individual bishops not to undertake unilateral actions or adopt policies which would strain our communion with one another without reference to their provincial authorities, and
2. Provincial authorities to have in mind the impact of their decisions within the wider Communion, and
3. All members of the Communion, even in our disagreements to have in mind the "need for courtesy, tolerance, mutual respect and prayer for one another" (1998, III.2 (e)).