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Anglican Consultative Council Ends

Diocesan Press Service. August 8, 1973 [73187]

The Rev. Canon Donald E. Becker

DUBLIN (DPS) -- The second Anglican Consultative Council ended in Dublin's Fair City on Friday, July 27.

After a 10 day meeting, the Council concluded on a certain note of optimism despite minimal progress with the very heavy load of problems it had to consider.

The basic structure of the council was one of identification -- discussion -- and resolution. Beginning with plenary sessions, it broke into over four days of group discussions, coming back for the last days of plenary sessions at which time its actions were taken.

Of the four sections -- Unity; Church and Society; Order and Organization in the Anglican Communion; and Mission and Evangelism -- the two that sparked the most debate were Church and Society and Order and Organization.

Church and Society had been heavily overloaded in the first Council in Limuru, Kenya, in 1971. This time it had but two tasks: 1) To deal with the problems of education for social justice; 2) To handle a memorandum from the Bishops of the Province of South Africa, asking the ACC to rescind an action of the first Council in Kenya, in which the Council endorsed the World Council of Churches Program to Combat Racism.

This second task engendered lengthy debate. In the end, the endorsement stood with an amendment added asking the World Council to consult with national churches prior to adoption of any new program.

In education for social justice, the Church and Society section offered insights into the problem, and asked the council to pass resolutions, the central of which called for member churches "to give highest priority to development of educational programs for liberation and social justice. "

"Order and Organization" had a number of assignments. Again, one dominated its deliberations. That had to do with the ordination of women. Discussions went on for hours. Finally, ACC H endorsed the resolution of ACC I (passed in 1971) and said that ordination of women "should not cause any break in the Anglican family" if any of the churches or provinces should ordain women. So far, only Hong Kong has. One group wanted the ACC II to say, " It is the mind of this council that women should be ordained. " Another wanted to repudiate the action of ACC I.

In the end, the Council did recognize that "any firm decision to ordain women will have important ecumenical repercussions." This is a step ACC I had not taken.

The problem of polygamy also occupied some debate time. The Council came down on the side of traditional Christian standard of monogamous marriage and urged those provinces and national churches facing polygamy as a serious problem to study the matter and act in the context of their own society.

The "Union and Ecumenical Affairs " section came out of its discussions urging the Council to affirm the 1920 Lambeth Conference " Call to All Christian People " (which it did) both as a guideline to reunion talks and as an indication of Anglican desires for reunion.

The Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council, the Rt. Rev. John Howe, sounded a note of caution. "Of the 20 or so conversations at various stages of development, no where does it seem that parties involved expect reunion to occur. " On the other hand, dialogues between Anglicans and Lutherans; Roman Catholics and Anglicans; and Orthodox and Anglicans, seem to be bearing fruit.

The fourth section was called, " Mission and Evangelism. " This report was most placid of all, though certainly of considerable importance. For it recommended "new styles of partnership" and recommended that Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence be more coordinated and centrally administered. This is to occur under the direction of the Secretary General, Bishop Howe.

One Tanzanian delegate summed up the feeling of many, " There is not enough partnership in MRI . . the giving churches will not receive anything back from the receiving churches." He also bemoaned the fact that too often Christians are seen as holdovers from Colonial days, in the emerging countries.

The Council elected Mrs. Harold C. Kelleran of the United States to be the next Chairman with her term beginning in April, 1974. The Rt. Rev. George Woodroffe, Bishop of the Windward Islands, will be the new Vice-Chairman.

Of interest is the reliable report that the Archbishop of Canterbury will retire before the end of 1974.

The next Council will be in Perth, Australia, in 1975.

Was it beneficial? Several delegates responded to this question.

" It was very educational . . . ," said a woman from Kenya.

" It was a dreadful fuss about nothing, " said a young woman from England.

" It has been very interesting . . but how do we take this back to the people . . . there is such a backlog of material that needs communication and in our case translation, " said a man from Korea.

"The great interplay from many places is a real achievement," said a layman from Northern Ireland.

" Limuru produced a great document (first Anglican Consultative Council). But we could not carry it back . . . how can we make this understood by our people . .., " said an African Bishop.

"It is the only time Africans can talk with Asians . . . this is a vital matter ...," said a Church of England consultant.

"Same old problems, same non-solutions," said a delegate whose identification is withheld by request.

This writer recalls the pungent statement by a Kenyan after the first Consultative Council . . . " It has taken 2,000 years for these problems to develop. We can't solve them in 10 days. "

The fact, however, that 60 people from all races and all of the 23 provinces of the Anglican Communion could meet and discuss concerns across racial, geographic, economic and educational lines is, in the world we live in, something in itself.

[thumbnail: Bishop John Howe, secreta...] [thumbnail: The Rt. Rev. John E. Hine...] [thumbnail: The Rev. and Mrs. W. G. H...] [thumbnail: The second Anglican Consu...]