Anglican Council Favors 1978 Lambeth Conference
Episcopal News Service. April 8, 1976 [76129]
Carolyn. Purden, CANADIAN CHURCHMAN
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- Acting on the advice of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), holding its third meeting here at the end of March, Archbishop Donald Coggan of Canterbury has announced that a Lambeth Conference will be held at Canterbury, England, in August, 1978.
The conference will cost an estimated $1,000,000 -- but inflationary factors do not appear to have been built into the estimate. The conference will include all diocesan bishops, 40 assistant bishops, and up to 60 consultants and observers, bringing total membership to 500 persons.
The ACC had been asked by the 1968 Lambeth to advise the Archbishop of Canterbury on the calling of future Lambeths, their time, place and agenda. A special committee of the ACC then brought forward two proposals to the Trinidad meeting.
The first proposal suggested a "Canterbury Conference" of 220 bishops, 60 ACC members and wp consultants, which would meet either at Canterbury or in Western Canada. The cost of that meeting was estimated at $500,000. The second proposal was the one finally adopted by the ACC.
During debate on the two proposals it became apparent that most delegates favored the holding of a Lambeth Conference, while the most noticeable opposition came from Church of England delegates. (When the final vote was taken all four of the English delegates abstained from voting.)
Lindsay Staniforth of England and Nigeria reminded delegates of a resolution passed by the 1973 ACC, by which churches pledged themselves to a reduced lifestyle.
"When we decide to spend a quarter to half-a-million pounds on a Lambeth Conference, I hope a good account will be rendered to those poor and oppressed people for whom we express such concern," she said.
Bishop Leslie Brown of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich, England, said a Lambeth Conference should not be held unless its purpose was clearly defined. The cost of preparation would put added stress on the Church of England, which is experiencing considerable financial difficulties, he said.
"This decision is going to cause a great deal of alarm among Church of England people. It will raise the question of stewardship, and they will say, 'What is this conference for? '" Bishop Brown added.
Other ACC members disagreed. Archbishop Geoffrey Sambell of Perth, Australia told delegates it would be "morally wrong" for them to plan the demise of any part of a Lambeth Conference without allowing the bishops to participate in the decision.
He and several other speakers also pointed out that the conference would allow the most isolated bishops an opportunity to share in a wide fellowship.
"People from older countries don't see the necessity for holding a Lambeth Conference," said Sir Louis Mbanefo of Nigeria. "The Lambeth Conference is an experience and an inspiration, and you can't put a money value on it. The delegates from Africa feel Lambeth is necessary and they are prepared to pay to the limit of their own pockets for the fellowship they get out of it."
After the ACC voted for a full Lambeth, Dr. Coggan outlined some of his expectations for the conference. It would be a residential meeting, held at a university and teacher training college in Canterbury, and would last for three weeks, he said.
The accent of the meeting would be on two things: "On prayer and waiting on God, and the understanding of episcopacy and training in the exercise of it."
Dr. Coggan said that while he had wanted a Lambeth, he had hoped for one of only about 250 people. "The council may be right, but let me say the church will be called on for an explanation," he told ACC delegates. "The world will believe it's a jamboree, even though it will be the reverse."
Dr. Marion Kelleran of the United States, chairman of the ACC, predicted that holding another Lambeth would reduce the American church to a state of indecisiveness.
"In my church, this year, if they know there is a Lambeth 1978, there will be issue after issue on which they will say, 'Let us get the advice of Lambeth.' We are all likely to say, ' Let's wait to hear what Lambeth has to say,' and that's ridiculous in this day and age."
During the three days of plenary sessions which were open to the press, the ACC approved reports on ministry, unity and ecumenical affairs, mission and evangelism, and the church and society.
Of these, the report on unity indicated the most pronounced change in direction for the Anglican Communion, away from national union schemes and towards a search for global unity.
The report pointed out that in the three years since the last ACC a "significant number" of union schemes had collapsed. One reason for the failure was growing awareness of membership in the world-wide Anglican Communion.
"The fear, real or imagined, of the disappearance of these links has weighed against the values of unity within national boundaries," the report said. "National church union schemes, in the opinion of some, tend to emphasize nationalism at a time when the churches should be setting an example of unity which transcends national frontiers."
The report also pointed to strengthened relationships with the Roman Catholic Church. "The appearance of the Roman Catholic Church as a serious participant in ecumenical discussion has, for many Anglicans, made the prospect of unions without Roman Catholic involvement less attractive."
But, the report continued, "We must be realistic about the areas in which significant change is possible."
Dr. John Macquarrie of England, a theological consultant to the meeting, told ACC members that the move away from organic union schemes towards a more open, multi-level process, introduced a new complexity into inter-church relationships.
"It is like moving from chess on an ordinary board to chess in three dimensions," he said, adding that the success of this approach did not depend on the Anglican Communion alone.
" If it is to succeed, Rome must take a leading part in it. I hope she'll give more vigorous leadership. It seems as if in the eyes of the Holy See 1,000 years is but a day, and we don't want to wait that long."
The unity report recommended establishment of an Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission to bring theological insights together from all parts of the world. The commission would be representative of major cultural and geographical areas within the communion, and would advise on specific questions of doctrine.
The ACC decided that member churches should be questioned about the benefits arising from such a commission, and that a final decision would be made at the next ACC meeting.
A major thrust of the mission and evangelism report was the increasing importance of indigenous theology -- the restating of Christian truths in terms that can be understood by other cultures.
It pointed out, "The Lamb of God has no meaning to an Eskimo who has never seen a sheep." Instead, words inherent to a particular culture may be used: "An Indian theologian might think that the idea of an 'avatar' or descent, drawn from his own tradition, was a more appropriate way of helping the Indian people to understand the meaning of Jesus Christ," the report said, stressing that there was new openness in mission theology to non-Christian religions and cultures.
The report evaluated the Partnership in Mission consultations and concluded that they have proved to be an important cooperative and educational experiment whose benefits are already beginning to appear at the local level.
The process has not only brought equality and openness into inter-church relationships, but has deepened the sense of autonomous churches belonging to a world-wide body, the report said. However, the more affluent churches have been slow to recognize the need for partnership consultations of their own, and there has been difficulty in expressing what gifts the other churches can bring -- "for example, too often partnership has been seen as a sharing of financial resources rather than of spiritual insights."
The report on church and society focused on two main areas: violence and non-violence, and human rights. One of the most significant statements in it was that violence was not an issue which faces a few Christians, but is part of a social scale in which all are involved.
The scale, the report said, begins with non-involvement or the conscious avoidance of involvement in social or political activities. It then rises through various degrees of involvement until it reaches the point where political and social structures are felt to be so unjust that they must be overthrown, first by non-violent means and then, if necessary, by violent means.
"Violence is by no means an issue to which only a few Christians in situations of particularly flagrant injustice may have to address themselves, the report said. Violence is rather the extreme end of a scale of social involvement on which all Christians should identify and assess their own position."
The report pointed out that in some areas where an outwardly peaceful regime is sustained by methods violating human rights, " it can be argued that no non-violent stance is possible for the Christian, and that to fail to react violently is tantamount to acquiescing in the use of violence by the oppressors."
However, a few pages later it added, that while some Christians may feel driven to the violent overthrow of an oppressive regime, and while members of the Anglican Communion are determined to remain "in fellowship" with them, "we must at all costs maintain and proclaim our conviction that it is only in utterly exceptional cases that this can be regarded as compatible with the Christian faith."
The report dealt in theories, rather than specific instances, and left questions open for local churches to decide. Several members of the council referred to the report as scholarly and balanced, others thought it academic and detached.
"It's too smooth, " said the Rev. Maurice Betteridge of Australia. "It's a balanced statement, but it doesn't agonize over the problem of violence enough. This report was written in a study, rather than out where things happen."
The paper on ministry raised the question of the diaconate: should it remain in holy orders, or should it be removed? The ACC decided that it should be retained as a period of preparation for the priesthood, but it should not be regarded as inevitably leading to that end.
It also recommended that churches and laity examine the concept of the diaconate as an order to which lay people serving the church could be admitted, and upheld the 1968 Lambeth resolution that women ordained deaconesses should be regarded as being in the diaconate.
The ACC gave little attention to women priests. The ministry report noted that one diocese had ordained women, eight provinces have approved in principle, seven have taken some preliminary action and four have decided against.
"It is evident that there is within Anglicanism an increasing acceptance of the principle that women may be ordained to the priesthood," the report said.
76129 (6) The Rev. Rustin Kimsey of the United States expressed dissatisfaction over the report. "We should be able to reflect the struggle in our churches over this issue," he told the ACC.
In a last minute resolution proposed by Sir Louis Mbanefo and seconded by Bishop Paul Burrough of Mashonaland, Rhodesia, the ACC expressed its concern at the failure of recent efforts to find a solution to the Rhodesia question.
The council called on member churches to pray for God's guidance "in finding without delay the rights, responsibilities and aspirations of the majority of people of that country."
As the meeting concluded, it was evident from talking to participants that the value of the ACC lies more and more in the realm of personal experience, rather than in giving any message to the church at large.
Several delegates referred to the fellowship they had shared during the 10-day sessions, and said that the significance for them lay in the realization that they belonged to a world-wide church.
Perhaps because of this, there was widespread disappointment that there was so little time for members to hear each other's stories when among them were people from Rhodesia, South Africa, Lebanon and Northern Ireland -- all of whom were involved in their own local situations. Instead, said delegates, there had been pressure on them to produce a book by the end of the sessions, and the agenda had been built around that expectation.
"The significance of the conference has been to get this group of people together," said Mr. Kimsey. "But I feel some disappointment in this process of turning out position papers. I think that's a legitimate goal, but I really think we need to concentrate on fewer items."
Bishop Leslie Brown of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich said he was not happy about the quality of the reports produced, or the time spent in drafting them.
"ACC membership is non-specialist, it represents the ordinary membership of the church, and its way of handling big subjects tends to be amateurish. I doubt if it should be issuing reports.
"One solution might be for the ACC to get into specifics, although that raises difficulties because final authority belongs only to the local church.
"It's a funny sort of body. Maybe maintaining and deepening fellowship between member churches is its main function."
"It's become pretty obvious that we need to move away from the process of focusing on preparing a report," said Archbishop Edward W. Scott, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada. "We need more person-to-person sharing and experience.
"There would still need to be a summary -- in the course of meetings some things may obviously become necessary to be shared. But it would be a by-product, rather than a focus."
Presiding Bishop John M. Allin of the U.S. Episcopal Church expressed his "disappointment that the council, like so many of our councils and conferences, became occupied in writing a report to be circulated among the Anglican Communion churches rather than concentrating on developing a picture among those present of the state of the Church throughout the world."
He added that he thought "we can do more within the advisory nature of that council to enable it to serve the Church as a really coordinating agency for the Anglican Communion."
The next ACC will probably be held in conjunction with the 1978 Lambeth Conference, and a few weeks before it. However, the decision has been passed on to a small committee which will look at the staff requirements of both the ACC and the Lambeth Conference, and the relationships between the bodies. A decision is expected within the next few months.