Archbishop of Canterbury Highlights International Influence of U.N. Observer
Episcopal News Service. September 21, 1995 [95-1235]
(ENS) The worldwide Anglican Communion has tremendous potential to influence the international scene, especially through its Observer at the United Nations, but that office needs continued financial support, said Archbishop of Canterbury George L. Carey.
During a visit to the Episcopal Church Center in New York, September 7, Carey praised the work of Bishop James Ottley, former bishop of Panama, who was appointed U.N. Observer by Carey in 1994. The daylong event to raise funds for the observer's office included a forum on the Communion's international role, choral Evensong and a reception, and drew more than 250 people.
While the U.N. Observer's office, housed at the Episcopal Church Center, is an agency of the Anglican Communion, it must raise most of its own budget, explained the Rev. Dr. Johncy Itty, associate for human rights. The Episcopal Church provides office space and other office materials, but "we still need substantially more funds to continue the work," he said.
The office works closely with local dioceses and provinces "to solve very tangible problems," he said. As the office responds to requests from churches for assistance or information, "We really are their source of access to the United Nations and the international institutions," he said. "Sometimes when people think of the United Nations, the image that comes to mind is bureaucracy. We really are a ministry."
Unfortunately, "We have had great difficulties in the past raising funds for it," Carey told an Ecumenical News International (ENI) interviewer. "I think if it collapsed, that would be tragic for Anglicanism." He expressed confidence, however, that ways would be found to put financing of the office "on a sound basis."
Carey's visit to New York included a trip with Ottley to meet with dignitaries of the United Nations.
Listing a litany of woes that feed conflicts throughout the world, Carey maintained during the forum that "an international religious community such as the Anglican Communion can surely help to generate and apply the moral will to recognize injustice and work for long-term solutions, even if they carry a short-term price."
Acknowledging that "misunderstandings between the great world faiths could create the great fault lines and even earthquakes of the future," Carey asserted that "bad religion is part of some of the worst problems, but good religion is part of the answer."
The Anglican Communion, he said, "is in itself a thoroughly international and multiracial community in which people who might otherwise be divided by geography, race and history come together in a spirit of mutual sharing, love and solidarity." He highlighted work of the Communion, both public and behind the scenes, to help heal divisions in Rwanda, Ireland and the Sudan.
Ottley echoed Carey's words about the Communion's potential, stressing that "in many countries Anglican Churches underestimate their political influence as spiritual communities which enjoy a mostly favorable reputation."
While the Anglican Communion works closely with other faith groups, it sometimes must provide a balancing voice, particularly to the positions taken by the Roman Catholic Church, both Carey and Ottley said.
"We work in solidarity and close collaboration with the Roman Catholic Church, which is itself such a powerful overall force for good," Carey said. "Nevertheless, I think it is important that there should be other strong and respected international Christian voices as well as the Vatican's."
In preparing for the recent United Nations conference on women in Beijing, Ottley said his office helped initiate a Communities of Faith United Nations Working Group that met in part to prepare to counter Vatican positions on abortion and contraception.
"The Anglican and, indeed, the Protestant position on the role of women and human sexuality takes a different form in our churches, and this needs to be recognized," Carey said. He later told ENI, however, that he did not agree with those who argue that the differences on women's issues, particularly ordination of women, make continued dialogue with Roman Catholicism useless. "I would like to see a deepening of the relationship between Rome and Canterbury," he said.
Carey also suggested that Roman Catholics as a whole might not have the same opinion as the official stance of their leadership. "If there were a referendum in the Roman Catholic Church tomorrow on the ordination of women, we might be surprised at the outcome," he said.
Carey also told ENI that he expected ecumenical and interfaith relations to be a major issue in 1998 at the next Lambeth Conference, the gathering of all bishops of the worldwide Anglican Communion held every 10 years. Lambeth will concern itself particularly with "how moderate Muslims and Christians can work together," he said.
Carey said the bishops at Lambeth would hear reports on the Decade of Evangelism, which was launched in 1988, and said he expected they would call for a continuation of this emphasis into the next century.
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