Anglican Council Opens Meeting in Singapore
Episcopal News Service. April 30, 1987 [87093]
Ruth Nicastro, Diocese of Los Angeles
SINGAPORE (DPS, April 30) -- Preaching in St. Andrew's Cathedral here on April 26 at the opening service of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) meeting, Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie said, "It is no bad thing for the representatives of the Anglican Communion to be travelling at Easter. Let our time here be a kind of pilgrimage...in which we renew our confidence in the cause we all share.
"May we draw strength from keeping company with so many of our fellow believers from whom we are often separated by distance and by opinions. And, at the end, may our memories be an inspiration which will renew and strengthen our brothers and sisters in the places where Christ has called us to serve him."
Observing that as individuals and as the institutional church "we often fail to recognize the Risen Lord when he comes to meet us," Runcie urged the ACC delegates to recognize Resurrection by ceasing to "locate it exclusively in the remote past or the distant future, where it can be safely tamed as an historical fact or a future dream" without relevance to today.
"Our travelling at Eastertide gives us the opportunity," the Archbishop said, "to discover the miracle of Resurrection within the ordinary round and daily routine of our lives."
In an area where Christianity is a minority religion, Runcie noted the difficult questions raised by the uniqueness of Christ and the living presence of the other great faiths of the world. "Shall we have the courage to recognize others along the Journey of spiritual pilgrimage?" he asked. "Shall we be able to glimpse something of the Eternal Word who comes to enlighten every man? Or shall we fight for the exclusive possession of the light of Christ by Christians?"
Addressing a congregation gathered from every part of the world, Runcie said, "Some of us need to ask whether we have confined the Risen Christ and seen him only in western cultural dress."
Reminding the delegates that Singapore is the home of the Christian Conference of Asia, the Archbishop asked them to remember that "Anglicans never claim to be more than part of the One, Holy, Catholic Church. Our vocation will always be defined in ecumenical terms."
Runcie spoke as president of the 80-member Council and also as the spiritual leader of the world-wide Anglican Communion it represents.
The opening service reflected the diversity of that Communion. All delegates processed, clergy in vestments, many of the laity in native dress from Africa, Pacific islands and other parts of the world. Clergy of the Diocese of Singapore were also in the procession, including Bishop Moses Tay, along with ACC staff and consultants for this meeting and a variety of ecumenical visitors who will be taking part in the discussions of the Council over the next two weeks.
This is the seventh meeting of the ACC, which was brought into being as a result of a 1968 Lambeth Conference decision to incorporate laity and clergy, as well as bishops, into the deliberative councils of the Communion.
Each of the 28 member Churches of the Communion is represented at ACC by from one to three delegates, depending on the number of its members. The Episcopal Church is represented by its Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Edmond T. Browning; the vice president of its House of Deputies, Pamela Chinnis; and the Very Rev. Frederick Borsch, dean of the Chapel at Princeton University.
Work at this meeting, to continue until May 8, will be organized around the themes already set for the Lambeth Conference in 1988: Mission and Ministry, Dogmatic and Pastoral Matters, Ecumenical Relations and Christianity and the Social Order.
In a brief address opening the first business session of the Council meeting, Runcie said that the papers coming from the various provinces to the four sections evidence an "underlying quest for a clearer definition of the identity and vocation of the Anglican Communion." He noted other recurrent themes in the papers, including those relating to the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate, "raise the issue of authority in a divided Christianity," and the whole question of Christian unity, which, he said, "Cannot be separated from questions about the future of Anglicanism: Is the Communion a permanent or a provisional expression of Christianity?"
After his opening remarks, Runcie relinquished the chair to the Ven. Yon Ping Chung, Archdeacon of Sabah, Malaysia, and Council chairman, who will preside over remaining plenary sessions of the meeting.