Doctrinal Panel Publishes Study
Episcopal News Service. March 20, 1986 [86057]
TORONTO (DPS, March 20) -- The first publication of the Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission --For the Sake of the Kingdom -- God's Church and the New Creation-- was introduced to a meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council Standing Committee here March 18. Subsequent presentations for the publication are planned throughout the Anglican world in a unique joint publishing venture.
The Commission was conceived in 1976 at the third meeting of the Council in Trinidad and endorsed by the 1978 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops.
Anglican theology had been thought to be in the same mold as Western theology generally, but the theological insights and inter-faith dialogue in the worldwide Anglican Church have challenged this assumption and influenced modern Anglican thought. For the Sake of the Kingdom demonstrates the theological richness and diversity of the Anglican church in trying to understand what the Kingdom of God means today in different cultural situations.
The Commission's report is not designed to be a supreme authority for the worldwide Anglican Communion but presents a common theological framework within which local theological questions can be raised. The report is part of the background material for the 1988 Lambeth Conference, and it is hoped that each diocese and province in the Communion will use it in relation to their own local concerns.
The Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission was made up of 15 members from 13 different Provinces of the Communion and was chaired by the Most Rev. Keith Rayner, Archbishop of Adelaide, Australia. The Commission met three times: England (1981), Barbados (1983) and Ireland (1985), and between meetings members contributed a wide range of papers and drew on the resources of provincial commissions.