The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. George Carey, discussed three elements of evangelism when he addressed the G-Code Evangelism Conference Sept. 4 at Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville, N.C. The archbishop suggested evangelism contains three parts: martyria, diakonia and koinonia - witness, service and fellowship.

"Never has there been a greater need or a greater thirst for a courageous and faithful telling of the gospel," Archbishop Carey said. "We must have confidence in God that he will use our witness to make himself more known."

The archbishop said in order to be a witnessing church, the church also must be believing.

"The Anglican faith has sometimes been unkindly caricatured as 'It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you don't hold it up too strongly'," he said. "Well, perhaps we have often been less than explicit in proclaiming what we believe in. Yet, such a caricature is nonsense, because we do have a clear body of doctrine earthed in the faith of the Bible and the creeds and the traditions of the universal church. We have always tried to steer a middle course between fundamentalism and extreme liberalism. However, one of the results of seeking such a path is that the average Anglican is on the whole unsure of his faith and unable to articulate it."

Archbishop Carey spent considerable time talking about the importance of service.

"We are called to service not as a way of coercing people to follow Christ, but because the gospel demands our unconditional self giving, as Christ offered himself for us. We seek to live out in our lives the reconciliation we proclaim - reconciliation with God the creator and sustainer of all, and reconciliation with our neighbor."

He stressed the need for Anglicans to move from a "maintenance mode" to one of mission, and emphasized the importance of vision, particularly for bishops.

"They should be freed from less important functions of church government to be vision bearers," he said. "They need time and space to think and read and to be among the people, for their vision bearing involves both the guardianship of faith as well as the task of building up the church."

The archbishop told of his own commitment to teaching missions since he became a bishop. He said he has tried to go to parish churches or deaneries with lay persons three or four times a year to conduct teaching missions to promote the Christian faith. He said the results of the missions are usually beneficial.

"Where there is visionary leadership, new Christians are made and churches grow," he said. "Where there is weak, ineffective ministry, congregations dwindle. It is time we gave serious attention to this and devoted more time to encouraging clergy in their task of building up congregations and working with lay leaders in effective collaboration."

In an earlier address, the Rev. Canon John L. Peterson, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, spoke on a variety of topics.

"I believe that Anglicanism can successfully challenge the growing and horrific fundamentalism that is permeating both the Christian faith and other religions," he said. "Anglicanism is a viable alternative to fundamentalism. We have a message to proclaim. We must not be shy and timid about the fact that these vociferous people make claims that they will win in the end."

Canon Peterson also told of his travels within the Anglican Communion and stressed the need for the church to be inclusive.

"Might we be a church where people know that they are loved, no matter what their status in life, no matter what their gender, no matter what their race or color, no matter what their sexual orientation, no matter what their tribe, no matter what - those artificial means by which we try to divide and separate people. A church that is not inclusive is not a church of Jesus Christ."

The conference, which included presentations by Anglicans from many provinces, continued through Sept. 8.