Hong Kong Rector Says Anglican Communion Is Hindered by Colonial Assumptions
Episcopal News Service. December 12, 1990 [90326]
The Anglican Church in East Asia is a product of colonial rule that has not yet adapted to indigenous culture, according to the Rev. Dr. Michael Poon, a rector in the Anglican Diocese of Hong Kong and Macao. Poon made his remarks during a recent meeting of the Episcopal Conference on Mission and Theology in Hong Kong. He asserted that the mission of the Anglican Communion is hindered because it lacks an understanding of Asian culture.
"Anglicanism portrays an elaborate religion," Poon said. "At the parochial level the church is encumbered with liturgies and rituals from the medieval period; church buildings are erected before local congregations are able to support their maintenance; operating expenses are dependent on proceeds from church-run schools and annual financial campaigns to the community at large; clergy are tied down by heavy administrative duties and endless school board meetings.
"These structures...often blunt the church's cutting edge," Poon continued. "The community becomes slow in responding to critical issues in the society. Initiatives often have to come from within the hierarchy."
Anglicanism, said Poon, was concerned with jurisdictional authority and apostolic secession. "This, of course, is meant to safeguard the unity, apostolicity, and catholicity of the church. Where the bishop is, so the church is, so the Cyprianic reasoning runs. So long as a bishop is duly consecrated by the required number of bishops and clergy duly deputized by the bishop, whether they are accountable to the local congregation and fellow Christians of other denominations does not really matter."
Poon said the heart of the matter was "Anglicanism can easily be defined as a jurisdictional reality, but to what extent is [it] an authentic communal reality as well? The elaborate structures and pomp blind the church to its central expository task and the true needs of the people whom it is called to serve."
Poon said that a church structure that emphasizes hierarchy is contrary to the Chinese view of "communal life as fundamental to human existence."
According to Poon, "Every person has a particular status within the community, and such status carries with it certain responsibilities and rights. Confucianism envisages a differentiated and ordered community. The idea that a person can exercise his duty or assert his authority in isolation from the community is alien to the Confucian mind."
"Rather, the community provides a forum in which a person learns to accept responsibility of his fellows," Poon continued. "It becomes a source of security for all and acts at the same time as a moral censure against those who breach the communal laws."
Poon said the idea that the holiness and catholicity of the church are exclusively defined and safeguarded by bishops and clergy is incomprehensible within the context of Chinese culture.
The church in China, Poon said, was wise to make a clean start in its interpretation of the episcopate by consecrating two bishops recently without any "jurisdictional" authority.
"The danger we face is that young churches would remain captive to the West even after natives have taken over positions of leadership," said Poon. The church was in danger of continuing to "go West" for the latest norm, he warned.
Poon asserted that a young church with a colonial history could not truly stand on its own feet if it continued to borrow uncritically the propagating strategies from its mother church. According to Poon, the Asian churches should not try to solve their financial problems by using the same methods as their patrons, and they should not adopt the same type of ecclesiastical polity as the former colonial masters.
"If the Anglican vision of a fellowship of churches worldwide is to be realized, we must...ask how fellowship can take place," Poon said. He added that he thought the vision of the Anglican fathers for a national church provided a creative way forward. "Should not the building up of mature national churches be a concern which is prior to any consideration of establishing autonomous Anglican provinces?" he asked.