Statement by the Presiding Bishop on Mutual Responsibility Document
Diocesan Press Service. October 10, 1963 [XIV-2]
The Advisory Council on Missionary Strategy of the Lambeth Conference, meeting in London, Ontario, early in August received the recommendations of the mission executives of all the member churches and missionary societies. The most significant recommendations were contained in a document entitled "Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ. " The Advisory Council adopted these recommendations as its own and for transmission to each of the national and regional churches that comprise the Anglican Communion. This paper calls upon each church to make a radical reappraisal of its work and witness.
The Executive Officer of the Anglican Communion has now delivered this document to the head of each of the national and regional churches of the Anglican Communion.
It therefore becomes my pleasure and duty to refer this revolutionary paper to the House of Bishops, the National Council and the General Convention. While we shall be able to formally acknowledge its receipt by early 1964 on the basis of the advice of the House of Bishops and of the National Council, the matters raised therein will be prominently before the General Convention next October and before us all in the years to come.
As first steps in preparing ourselves to receive and respond to this proposal, we plan initial discussion of it at the meeting of the House of Bishops in Little Rock this November and at the December meeting of the National Council. It seems likely that, among other actions to be taken at the December meeting, the National Council might then formally refer the proposal to each province, diocese and missionary district of our church.
In the meantime, The Seabury Press and the SPCK plan this fall to offer (at a modest price) for general distribution the text of all the papers of the Advisory Council on Missionary Strategy, of which this is the central one.
I join with others in hoping that these papers will be widely read and studied so that as early as possible the Episcopal Church can formulate its response and organize its program in the light of the proposal.
ARTHUR LICHTENBERGER
PRESIDING BISHOP