Summit will not debate Gafcon: CEN 11.28.08 p 7. November 30, 2008
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Consultative Council, Church of England Newspaper, GAFCON.trackback
Members of the Joint Standing Committee [JSC] of the Primates and the Anglican Consultative Council are scheduled to meet this week, Nov 25-27 at St. Andrew’s House in London to prepare for the May 2009 meeting of the ACC in Jamaica.
Senior Communion sources tell The Church of England Newspaper the “agenda is largely preparing for ACC-14 next year, and trying to build on the lessons learned from the [2008] Lambeth [Conference].” No formal discussion of the Gafcon call for a third province in North America has been planned for the gathering, sources report.
The JSC will look into the current state of the ACC’s finances as well as receive an update on the attempts to pay off the million pound cost overruns from the 2008 gathering of bishops in Canterbury. Personnel issues at the ACC will be addressed, along with a status report on the proposed Faith and Order Commission and the Anglican Covenant Design Group’s works.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams will also address the gathering, offering his reflections on the state of affairs within the Anglican Communion.
Questions of a third province in North America proposed by the Gafcon movement will not likely come before the meeting as no formal request has been made by the primates on this issue. Conservative church leaders have called for the creation of a third province in North America as a haven for traditionalists which would also gather up the disparate Anglican groups that have broken with the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada over the past hundred and twenty five years.
However, the third province movement is bitterly opposed by the leaders of the US and Canadian churches, who have argued that overlapping jurisdictions based upon theology, race and politics are foreign to the Anglican ethos. While overlapping jurisdictions are far from ideal, they are not strangers to Anglican history, as past divisions over doctrine and discipline have led to the temporary creation of rival jurisdictions such as the dioceses of Natal and Maritzburg in Nineteenth century South Africa.
In the modern era, a province becomes a member of the Anglican Communion not through communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury but by virtue of its membership in the ACC—the Archbishop of Canterbury is in communion with the Lutheran Porvoo Churches, but they are not members of the Anglican Communion.
Membership in the ACC for a new province comes after two-thirds of the primates have given their assent, and the full ACC assents by majority vote. No formal procedure for the creation of a province is specified, though Resolution 21 of ACC 1 asks that “before the creation of a new province there should be consultation with the Anglican Consultative Council or its Standing Committee for guidance and advice, especially in regard to the form of constitution most appropriate.”
Members of the Primates Standing Committee are from elected by regional blocks during votes taken at the primates meetings. The roster of the current committee includes Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishops Philip Aspinall of Australia, Mouneer Anis of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Barry Morgan of Wales, Henry Orombi of Uganda, and Katharine Jefferts Schori of the United States.
Aides to Archbishop Orombi tell CEN he will not be attending this week’s meeting, and that Archbishop Justice Akrofie of West Africa will attend in his place.
Members of the ACC’s standing committee are elected at its regular meetings. The current roster includes the chairman, Bishop John Patterson of New Zealand, and vice-chairman Dr. George Khoshy of South India, as well as regular members: Mrs. Philippa Amable of West Africa, Mrs. Jolly Babirukamu of Uganda, Mr. Robert Fordham of Australia, Bishop Kumara Illangasinghe of Ceylon, Canon Elizabeth Paver of the Church of England, Bishop James Tengatenga of Central Africa, and Ms. Nomfundo Walaza of Southern Africa.
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