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North Carolina Meeting Discusses Issues Facing the Anglican Communion

Episcopal News Service. May 13, 1992 [92107]

A historic first meeting of the standing committees of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), comprised of lay and clergy representatives of the 28 autonomous churches of the Anglican Communion, and the Anglican Communion's primates met in North Carolina to grapple with the major issues facing the communion.

"During our time together we have looked at the growth of the church in many parts of the world, renewed our commitment to ecumenical dialogue, and begun the search for a secretary-general to succeed Sam Van Culin in 1994," the participants said in a final communique issued at the Kanuga Conference Center near Hendersonville.

The participants laid plans for the first joint meeting of the primates and the ACC next January in Cape Town, South Africa, under the theme "A Transforming Vision: Suffering and Glory in God's World." "As guests of this vibrant church, in which members of all races join together to oppose apartheid and work for human rights, we wish to show our solidarity with the province [of Southern Africa]," the communique said.

The world financial crisis has also impinged on the work of the ACC and participants in the Kanuga meeting seriously considered postponing the Cape Town conference. "We decided that it was too late in the planning stage -- and that it would send the wrong kind of message to the rest of the world if we postponed the meeting," said Pamela Chinnis, president of the Episcopal Church's House of Deputies and a representative to the ACC. She added that it was important for the new archbishop of Canterbury to meet with all the primates and the ACC. "While money will be a problem, we concluded that postponing the meeting would not be good stewardship," said Chinnis, who has been a member of the ACC finance committee since 1986.

"The churches of the Anglican Communion are finding it very difficult to meet their financial obligations," added Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning. "The situation has injected some realism over what the ACC is and what it can do."

The financial crisis was offered as one good reason for postponing the once-in-a-decade meeting of Anglican bishops at Lambeth. Originally scheduled for 1998, there is a good possibility that it could be postponed until 2000, coinciding with the conclusion of the Decade of Evangelism. The archbishop of Canterbury will make the final decision.

The Kanuga meeting expressed its disappointment with the Vatican response to the Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue and urged Carey to discuss the issue with the pope when they meet later this month. They also heard reports from Bishop Paul Reeves on his work as the first full-time Anglican observer at the United Nations.

Search begins for new ACC secretary general

Chinnis was also appointed to the search committee for a successor to Van Culin. The committee, chaired by Archbishop Brian Davis of New Zealand, hopes to present a "short list" of potential candidates at the Cape Town meeting. Van Culin, who originally planned to retire this year, agreed to remain in the post until the end of 1994. The new secretary general would assume the post in October 1994.

Davis has sent a letter to the primates of the Anglican Communion, moderators of the United Churches that are in communion with Canterbury, members of the ACC, and provincial secretaries inviting nominations. He also sent the draft of a paper on the "role and qualities" of the secretary general that will be presented at the Cape Town meeting. In asking for reactions, Davis said that the paper "will then be revised in the light of your comments, and sent to the candidates who will be selected for interview, together with the terms and conditions of service." Davis concluded his letter by emphasizing that "the person appointed will have a unique opportunity to serve our communion at a critical time in its history."

Among the items on the agenda at Cape Town will be an "in-depth discussion of membership in the ACC," Chinnis added. "There is serious discussion about expanding the ACC to make it more representative," she said.

Participants at the Kanuga meeting attended services at St. James Church in nearby Hendersonville. Carey preached to a capacity congregation in a service that was locally televised and will be broadcast on VISN, the interreligious cable television network.

Carey stops at United Nations

Carey also stopped in New York on his way back to London to meet with officials at the United Nations, including Secretary General Boutros-Ghali. In a brief conversation with a few reporters, Carey said that he found the riots in Los Angeles very troubling. He was sharply criticized by his own government last year for insisting on a connection between violence and underlying social problems.

Carey repeated his disappointment with the Vatican response to the first round of the dialogue between Anglicans and Roman Catholics. He rejected the idea of breaking off the dialogue, however, and said that he plans to discuss the future of the dialogue when he meets with the pope in Rome in a few weeks.

On his last Sunday in the United States, Carey attended services at Church of the Intercession in New York City's Harlem where he exchanged gifts and a greeting.