Anglican Consultative Council Set To Meet
Episcopal News Service. March 22, 1979 [79090]
London, Ontario -- The fourth meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council will take place at Huron College, London, Ontario, Canada, May 8-18.
According to the Rt. Rev. John Howe, Secretary General of the Council, there may be as many as 60 million Anglicans in the world, although the 26 member-churches record only about 46.7 million baptized members.
The 60 Council members -- bishops, clergy and lay persons -- are drawn from churches of the Anglican Communion throughout the world. Each of the national churches is represented by one, two or three delegates. In the United States, the Episcopal Church -- represented by three delegates -- has about three million members.
The president of the Anglican Consultative Council is the Most Rev. Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury. The present chairman is Mrs. Harold C. Kelleran of Alexandria, Va., U.S.A. Bishop G.C.M. Woodroffe of the Windward Islands in the West Indies is vice chairman.
The Council will open on May 8 at 2:30 p.m. with an address by Bishop Howe in which he will review current affairs in the Church. A service will follow in St. Paul's Cathedral at 4:30 p.m., with the Archbishop of Canterbury preaching. Both meetings are open to the press and public.
Each delegate will be assigned to a study section and these meetings will be closed to the press and public. Open plenary sessions will be held May 16-18 and possibly on the afternoon of the 15th.
The four sections will prepare papers for consideration in plenary sessions. The agenda derives from matters of current interest and concern for Anglicans and other churches around the world. Much of the agenda relates to resolutions from the third Council meeting in 1976 or the Lambeth Conference last summer.
In brief, the agenda for the four sections is:
- Section I: Unity and Mission -- Commissions with other churches (Roman Catholic, Reformed, Orthodox, etc.); the World Council of Churches; Development of Mission; and Partners in Mission in the Anglican Communion.
- Section II: The theological basis of human rights -- An Anglican study of a worldwide subject that is at present being investigated by several churches.
- Section III: The Anglican Communion -- The purpose, structure and role of Anglicanism as a worldwide Church.
- Section IV: The Anglican Consultative Council -- A small section to review matters related to the Council and its work.
Like the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council has no authority to legislate for its member-churches. The churches confer together and in light of this consultation and their own circumstances, they make their own decision.
Previous meetings of the Council were in Limuru, Kenya, in 1971; in Dublin, Ireland, in 1973; and in Trinidad, in 1976.
The Episcopal Church will be represented by the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop; the Rev. Rustin R. Kimsey, The Dalles, Ore.; and Mrs. Carter C. Chinnis, Alexandria, Va.