Regional Council of Anglican Churches formed in Lima, Peru
Diocesan Press Service. April 9, 1973 [73098]
(EDITOR'S NOTE : The following report was written by Jerry Hames, news editor of Canadian Churchman, national newspaper of the Anglican Church of Canada. Mr. Hames attended the eight-day consultation at the Huampani Vaccationale Centro, about 30 miles from Lima.)
LIMA, Peru (March 21) -- The first steps to form a new regional council of all Anglican churches in South America was taken here by a meeting of delegates representing all existing Anglican Church work on the continent. The 23 delegates, who included a bishop, priest and layman or woman from each of the church's seven dioceses, as well as the independent Episcopal Church of Brazil, proposed the new council should take as its name the Consejo Anglicano Sud Americano (CASA). A rough draft of the constitution was accepted which provides a facility for all the dioceses to consult and plan together, to express Anglican identity and to relate to other churches in South America.
The draft constitution will be referred to the dioceses for their opinions and suggestions.
The new regional council will have broader powers and responsibility in addition to providing an arena for consultation and joint planning. CASA as it is now seen, wants the right to elect South American representatives to the Anglican Consultative Council, representing the world-wide Anglican Communion; to ratify the appointment of bishops elected to dioceses and to approve the creation of new dioceses as the church develops.
Within this central regional council, dioceses should begin to form relationships on a sub-regional basis for mutual assistance to one another, the consultation agreed. Such groupings would be flexible and vary according to the needs to be met.
Many delegates said that where conditions in each country are favorable, the name "Episcopal" should be used to designate the church, in preference to "Anglican. " This, delegates said, will help to clarify the identity of the church on the continent. To retain ties with the Anglican Communion, they agreed to keep "Anglican" in the title of the consultative council. Observers and consultants from Canada, the United States, England and Australia, in addition to observers from Roman Catholic and Pentecostal churches, participated in the meeting with the delegates from South American dioceses and the Episcopal Church in Brazil.
The Brazilian church, which received its independence from the Episcopal Church in the United States in 1965, will consider joining CASA as a full member or as an observer. The decision will have to be considered at the church's next synod meeting.
Observers said that Brazil's presence in CASA as a full member would help to strengthen the council, make the organization truly representative of South America and also provide the Brazilian church with links to the existing Anglican presence in other countries on the continent.
In another action, the consultation agreed that each diocese should attempt to form both short-term and long-term plans leading to the indigenization of the churches. Indigenization, t said, involves the achievement of self-determination in those areas of leadership, government, and finances and expresses the national reality of the church.
The historic meeting -- the first since the consultations of 1963 and 1965 when the Anglican overseas missionary agencies gathered to divide the continent into missionary jurisdictions to avoid competition in the mission field -- was initiated by Bishop John Howe, secretary-general of the Anglican Consultative Council, after consultation with some of the dioceses and missionary agencies.
" I found people coming to me and talking about the same problems. Not only the same problems, but the same hopes," Bishop Howe said.
There are those who say the Anglican Church has no role in Latin America. "I believe it has a role. But I also believe that it is for the church within the area to decide what that role is and not for the people outside to determine this for them. " Anglican Church membership, as it now exists, is small on the continent, numbering about 26,500 communicants in the 10 countries.
" There is need for more spontaneous links among the South American dioceses," the consultation said. The dioceses, not including the Brazilian church, are all linked with different overseas organizations for support of their work. British and Australian missionary societies, the Canadian Anglican Church and the Episcopal Church in the United States together contribute more than $850,000 each year in both money and manpower to help build an Anglican presence there, Bishop Howe told the consultation.
The eight-day consultation brought together a wide diversity of long-established traditions on the continent, ranging from conservative evangelical to Anglo-Catholic in tradition. Delegates included national bishops, missionary bishops, clergy, evangelists, persons involved in Christian education programs and lay delegates who work in secular jobs, witnessing to their faith through community life.
Because it was the first occasion for many to meet and become acquainted with the church's work in other areas, the consultation found it difficult to agree upon a single role for the church or to determine a set of principles for church growth.
Two missionary societies, one from England and one from Australia, plus the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church in the United States, support the work of the dioceses in South America. The largest missionary society working actively on the continent is the South American Missionary Society. This England-based agency, established 130 years ago is contributing about $375, 000 in manpower and money to mission work this year, mostly to support its workers and programs in Northern Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia and Peru.
The Australian-branch of the South American Missionary Society concentrates its mission efforts on a much smaller scale in Southern Argentina and Chile and the Church Missionary Society of Australia has eight workers in Peru and Bolivia.
The Episcopal Church in the United States provides financial support in the amount of $548,000 for the dioceses of Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil, while Canadian Anglican church support goes to support work in Venezuela, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia and Peru.
For further information contact: Mrs. Carman Hunter (212) 867-8400
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