Anglican Consultative Council to Meet
Diocesan Press Service. November 30, 1972 [72196]
LONDON, England (DPS) -- The second meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), representing more than 50 million Anglicans throughout the world, will take place in Dublin, July 17-27, 1973.
The ACC was created by a resolution of the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion in 19(i8, with the major aim of developing agreed Anglican policies in the world mission of the Church. It is also intended to serve as needed as "an instrument of common action. " However, its function is consultative, not legislative.
The first meeting of the ACC, held at Limuru, near Nairobi in Kenya, in February- March, 1971, was attended by 51 representatives from 22 Provinces of the Anglican Communion. The Council meets every two years to provide "continuity of consultation" between the Lambeth Conferences of Bishops, held every 10 years. Representatives included bishops, clergy, and lay persons, plus co-opted women and youth.
The business at the second meeting of the ACC will be in four sections: Unity; Church and Society; Order and Organization in the Anglican Communion; and Mission and Evangelism. The agenda will include reports and resolutions on such topics as assessment of current ecumenical activities; international conversations with the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Churches; social justice; ordination of women to the priesthood; polygamy; divorce and re-marriage; and salvation.
The chairman of the ACC is a Nigerian judge, Sir Louis Mbanefo, and the vice- chairman is an American professor of pastoral theology at Virginia Theological Seminary, Mrs. Marion Kelleran, who is also a member of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church.
In addition to Mrs. Kelleran, other members of the Episcopal delegation are the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop, and the Rev. W.G.Henson Jacobs, Brooklyn, N.Y. Mr. Edward Blue, a black student at Indiana University, is a co-opted youth representative.
[Contact Archives for note to news editors from the ACC, list of principal countries represented in the ACC 1973, and/or background article on second ACC meeting - Ed.]