First Inter-Anglican Development Conference Held
Episcopal News Service. March 21, 1985 [85060]
Ruth Nicastro, Anglican Press Cooperative
LOS ANGELES (DPS, March 21) -- Twenty-five representatives from seven provinces of the Anglican Communion met here Feb. 26-27 for the first Inter-Anglican Consultation on Development.
Sponsored by the Anglican Consultative Council, the meeting was convened by the Rev. Stephen K. Commins, coordinator of the Development Institute at the African Studies Center of UCLA.
The Institute is a joint project of the University of California and the Episcopal Church to encourage cooperation in church and government development projects in Africa, Latin America and the Pacific Islands. It is funded by the Episcopal Church's Overseas Development Office and Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief; both units of the Church Center's World Mission staff.
The Anglican Consultative Council assembled a group of persons already engaged in development work around the world to study the the Church's role in development and make specific suggestions to the Council.
After an introductory period, sharing experiences and philosophies from their respective countries, the group set about defining what is, or should be, the Church's distinctive contribution to development.
Participants agreed that the Church offered a special spiritual dimension to development work. Hallmarks of this were a ministry to more than physical needs; the priority of human resources over financial ones; an understanding of development as a two-way process -- all are givers and all are receivers; a prophetic quality -- the Church pioneers in areas for service not met by other agencies; projects which arise from needs expressed by people in a given locale, involve those people and result in improved quality of life for them.
While a "spiritual dimension" was easily agreed upon by the group, defining that dimension sparked considerable debate. Third World participants placed development squarely within the area of evangelism while several Western participants considered evangelism a "loaded" and easily misunderstood word. The group agreed that development was one part of the overall evangelistic mission, choosing to use the words "proclamation and demonstration" of the Gospel. As Bishop Henry Okullu of Maseno South Diocese, Kenya, put it: "Development is preaching the Gospel in deeds as well as words."
A major concern was the prevalence in much development work of reacting to crises. Archdeacon John Kago, Provincial Secretary of the Province of Kenya, said that "Major preventive actions would avoid many crises in the world and many resultant problems, such as huge numbers of refugees fleeing drought and famine. Both churches and states spend much more on rescues in crises than they would have in prevention of those crises."
Major recommendations centered around communication and networking. All participants agreed that there was need for frequent sharing of ideas, models, and information on both needs and resources. They strongly suggested formation of a network of persons directly involved in development, to be facilitated through the Council. The group also hoped the Council would explore ways of communication in addition to print; these included slide shows, videotape, audiotape, and meetings. In particular, the group suggested small meetings of provincial representatives facing similar problems. In line with this, they suggested that the Council coordinate a development component for the discussions at Lambeth in 1988.
Finally, the consultation agreed that ecumenical participation should be encouraged. Canada's George Cram pointed out that at the village level, successful development projects are not possible without the participation of the whole community, including members of all other churches. English missionary Stephen Carr noted that Church of England development money is now all channeled through the ecumenical agency Christian Aid.
On a broader scale, the consultation suggested that the Anglican Consultative Council was the proper body to "plug Anglican resources into the larger ecumenical framework." It also strongly recommended that the Council have a large role in the 1986 World Council of Churches conference on sharing of resources.
The Consultation was timed to include participation by eleven diocesan development officers from the Province of Kenya who, along with Kago, are presently in a three-month training program at the Development Institute at the University of California. These Kenyan participants included the Revs. James Peter Njenga, George Mambo, Peter John Macira Kihoro, Peter Indalo, Joshua Mutinda; and Evan Mbogo, Lucas Wadenya, Madote Emmanuel, Olivia Agwa, Stephen Githendu and Symon Kariuki.
Invited Anglican representatives included: Stephen Carr, Former CMS Missionary in Africa, now seconded to the World Bank in Washington, D.C.; John Denton, general secretary, Anglican Church of Australia, and immediate past chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council; Faga Matalavea, United Nations Development Project Officer in Samoa and Anglican Consultative Council delegate; Bishop John Watanabe, Primate of Japan, and William Honoman, Episcopal missionary attached to the Nippon Sei Ko Kai; from the Anglican Church of Canada: John Barton, director of World Mission, and George Cram, Primate's World Relief and Development Fund; and from the Episcopal Church: Leonard Coleman, board member of the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief and commissioner, N.J. State Department of Energy, and Edward Holmes and Jane Watkins, Overseas Development Office.