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ACC appointments: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 3, 2010 p 6. December 5, 2010

The Rev. Maria Christina Borges Alvarez of Cuba

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Anglican Communion’s Standing Committee has appointed two new members and named a former member to serve as vice chairman of its finance committee.

The minutes of the July 23-27 meeting reported that vacancies created by the resignation of Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda, Archbishop Justice Akrofi of West Africa, Presiding Bishop Mouneer Anis of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Ms. Nomfundo Walaza of Southern Africa, and Bishop Azad Marshall of Iran, were filled by the committee.

The seat of Archbishop Orombi was not filled, however, as the alternate for Africa, Archbishop Akrofi, had resigned also.  The two African primates, along with Bishop Anis and Bishop Marshall had quit the standing committee, citing their lack of confidence in its integrity.

Bishop Paul Sarkar of Bangladesh, as alternate to Bishop Anis was appointed to fill his seat, while the committee asked the Rev. Maria Christina Borges Alvarez of Cuba to join.  The minutes note she was a “woman priest from Latin America, a region which was at present unrepresented.”  An appointed member of the ACC, the Cuban priest has already served six of the nine years of her term on the council, and will only serve through the next meeting of the ACC in 2012.

The minutes report that questions first raised by this newspaper over the legality of the December 2009 appointment of Canon Janet Trisk to the committee were valid.  The former ACC constitution was still in force as of the December 2009 meeting and the “casual vacancy arising from the resignation” of Ms. Walaza “should therefore have been filled” by a lay person, the minutes reported.  The new constitution, however, permitted the appointment of Canon Trisk, and the committee voted to appoint her to the “vacancy that currently exists.”

Australian member Mr. Robert Fordham, whose term of office ended in 2009, continued to serve the ACC as a consultant and as vice-chair of the Finance and Administration Committee.

However, the legality of this second December 2009 appointment as vice chairman is also in doubt, as the ACC’s constitution rule 14.3 requires committee chairs to be members of the ACC—a position not held by Mr. Fordham as a consultant.

A further vacancy now exists on the Standing Committee following the retirement of the Bishop of Kurunegala, the Rt. Rev. Kumara Illangasinghe.  This elected seat will likely be filled at the committee’s next meeting.

ACC not bound by UK or EU equalities laws, legal advisor claims: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 27, 2010 p 1. August 28, 2010

First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.

Concerns that the Anglican Consultative Council will be subject to UK and EU equality laws following its formation as a British limited company are misplaced, the London-based instrument of communion’s legal advisor, John Rees, reported on Aug 11.

“I share the unease of many religious people about the impact of this British [equality] legislation,” Canon Rees said in a statement released by the Anglican Communion News Service, “but it is not right to say that the restructuring of the ACC will have altered its position” under the legislation.

Critics of the transformation of the ACC from a British charity to a limited corporation have voiced concerns over the ratification process and the powers given to the ACC Standing Committee by the new constitution.  In a paper released last month, the conservative-leaning Anglican Communion Institute (ACI) offered a lengthy critique of the newly formed corporate entity, and noted that whether by accident or design, the ACC was now subjecting itself to UK and EU equality laws on homosexuality.  Liberal groups have been equally troubled by the ACC’s statement that it will not be bound by British and EU equality laws.

In response to the criticisms Canon Rees stated “the Church of England has played a major part, with other churches in the UK, in achieving and preserving certain exclusions for itself and other religious bodies in relation to this legislation as it has developed over the last thirty years.”

He stated the recent incorporation would not change the application of the law as it would be binding upon both a corporation and a charity.  However, Canon Rees added that the ACC will now “enjoy the benefit of exclusions from this legislation to the same extent as any other religious organisation in the UK.

The director of Changing Attitude, the Rev. Colin Coward, told CEN the exemptions granted to religious bodies under UK Equality Legislation are “very limited in extent and I doubt that they would affect the ACC in any way.”

He added that he was troubled by the claims made by the ACC, noting that “many members of the Church of England join Changing Attitude in believing there is no benefit to be enjoyed from these very limited exemptions.”

Mr. Coward said these claims “allow the church to continue with the dishonest pretence that it excludes from ordained ministry partnered lesbian and gay people. The unease of many religious people about the impact of this British legislation relates to freedom given to churches to maintain prejudiced and judgmental attitudes to lesbian and gay people.”

The ACI said it shared Canon Rees’ “unease” over the “impact of British equalities legislation on religious bodies, especially the ACC,” but added his assurances were not convincing as “this issue will not be settled without further judicial decisions.”

“We are neither as sanguine about the future scope of these exemptions nor as resigned to their applicability to the ACC as is Canon Rees,” it said.

The minutes to the December meeting of the ACC Standing Committee suggests it does not have a firm grasp on the equalities laws either.  Agenda item 17 of the meeting minutes stated the Archbishop of Canterbury told the meeting the Church of England had “issued guidelines on clergy in civil partnership. He wondered if the moratoria included those clergy involved in civil partnership. Some were in celibate same sex partnerships,” the minutes reported.

The members of the Standing Committee responded that the “moratoria referred to consecration of bishops and authorisation of formal blessing of same sex unions. The meaning of civil partnership was unclear as it could include siblings or friends simply living in the one house,” the minutes said.  However, Section 3.1(d) of the Civil Partnership Act of 2004 prohibits siblings from entering into a civil partnership.

The new ACC Constitution does concede that members of the Standing Committee may be in civil partnerships.  In its definitions of “connected person” section 6.5.2 of the new constitution states that a “spouse or civil partner” of a member of the Standing Committee is prohibited from engaging in business with the new entity.

ACC faces questions about the legality of its new constitution: The Church of England Newspaper, August 6, 2010 p 6. August 6, 2010

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Anglican Consultative Council failed to follow its rules in soliciting approval for its new constitution, critics of the London-based ‘instrument of communion’ tell The Church of England Newspaper.

Some provinces were never asked to approve the ACC’s new constitution, while others were asked to approve “in principle” a draft version that differed from the final document lodged with the Registrar of Companies for England and Wales on July 10, 2010, while a third group reported that the draft it approved was substantially similar to the one adopted.

The resulting uncertainty has likely resulted in two Anglican Consultative Councils under law: a limited corporation created under English law on July 12, 2010, and an English charitable trust registered in 1978.

The ACNS reported that ACC legal adviser John Rees told the Standing Committee at its London meeting on July 24 the new Articles of Association had been drawn up between 2002 and 2005, before submission to the Provinces between 2005 and 2009.  “In all essentials the content of the new Constitution is as circulated to the provinces between 2005 and 2009” ACC spokesman Jan Butter said.

However, Global South leaders tell CEN the claim of inconsequential revisions advanced by the ACC was misleading.  Citing the Anglican Communion Institute’s analysis, they note the new constitution engages in a power grab that makes the delegates subordinate to the Standing Committee, while also encroaching upon the authority and prerogatives of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates Meeting.  It is also unclear if all of the provinces were consulted about the changes introduced by the new constitution, including the subordination of the ACC to the European Union’s equality laws.

The Archbishops’ Council and the House of Bishops Standing Committee endorsed the revised articles of association in early 2009, a spokesman for the Church of England said, adding that “we do not consider there to be any significant differences between the drafts considered by the Archbishops’ Council and House of Bishops Standing Committee in 2009, and the articles adopted this year.”

A spokesman for the Church of Uganda told CEN that in 2008 a letter asking for comments on the draft bylaws was sent to Archbishop Henry Orombi, which stated that unless an answer was received, this would be interpreted as the church’s consent for the revisions, which were described as inconsequential changes to facilitate the ACC’s metamorphosis into a limited liability corporation.

However, “we were never sent an actual copy of the new by-laws to review,” the Church of Uganda spokesman said.

In 1969 the special session of the Episcopal Church’s General Convention “acceded and subscribed to the Proposed Constitution of the said Anglican Consultative Council,” but spokesman Neva Rae Fox stated “the General Convention did not act on the revisions to the ACC constitution proposed by ACC-13.”

On July 27, the Primate of the Southern Cone, Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina stated he had “no recollection of this province having been consulted on these changes.”

Mr. Butter told CEN that ACC chairman Bishop John Patterson reported the approval of the new constitution “to members in the first session” of ACC-14.  However, he said he did not believe the announcement of the approval “was minuted” in the proceedings of ACC-14, while audio recordings of the May 2 session do not record this announcement.

Formed in 1969 in response to 1968 Lambeth Conference Resolution 69, the ACC began as a voluntary association to advance the interests of the churches of the Anglican Communion.  In 1973 ACC-2 approved the creation of a trust under British law to hold title to property in England on behalf of the ACC’s members. Further refinements were taken at ACC-11, which adopted resolution 11.6 calling for the formation of a limited legal company to manage the ACC’s assets while keeping the structure “so far as possible in all other respects in accordance with the existing constitutional arrangements.”

In 2005, ACC-13 Resolution 3 approved the draft articles reconstituting “the work of the Council within the framework of a limited liability company,” authorized the Standing Committee to make final amendments to the proposed constitution, and asked that the Standing Committee establish “such a body with charitable status in accordance with the such approved draft Memorandum and Articles as amended” following consultation with the Primates and legal counsel.

In response to questions about the status of the new constitution, in January 2010, ACC Secretary General Kenneth Kearon told the website Episcopal Café the change to its constitution “required approval in principle from a majority of the provinces, and the Standing Committee just before ACC 14 in Jamaica in 2009 noted that the requisite number of approvals had been received.”

The new articles were “available at the ACC meeting in Jamaica in 2009 and were discussed at the [December] Standing Committee meeting,” Canon Kearon that month told Pittsburgh blogger Dr. Lionel Deimel, adding that “these were sent to the Charity Commissioners for final approval immediately after ACC in 2009, but we have not yet received a response.

Last month Canon Kearon further clarified the chronology stating the “text was finalised at the Standing Committee meeting” held before the start of ACC-14.  The “approval by the Charity Commissioners was received just before the [July 2010] Standing Committee meeting, at which point it became operative.”

Approval by the Standing Committee alone was insufficient to ratify a new constitution, canon lawyers tell CEN, as Article 8 of the former bylaws limited the Standing Committee’s power.  It could not act on behalf of the full council in matters “by this Constitution required to be done specifically by the Council” including the adoption of new bylaws, they argue.

The final text of the constitution approved by the Standing Committee before the start of ACC-14 had to be “submitted by the Council to the constitutional bodies” or Provinces for ratification, under Article 10 of the former bylaws.

An “association must proceed by its rules,” former Australian ACC member Robert Tong told CEN.  It was part of pattern of “contempt” for the ACC constitution by the Standing Committee illustrated by its denial of Ugandan delegate the Rev. Phil Ashey a seat at ACC-14, and the Janet Trisk affair, where it appointed the South African clergy delegate in December, but conceded in July its actions were unlawful under the old rules, but could be perfected under the new.  This was “a con by the ACO” that showed “constitution is held in contempt,” Mr. Tong, a member of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Panel of Reference and the Diocese of Sydney deputy-chancellor said.

The ACC stated that details on which provinces had endorsed the draft constitution would not be quickly forthcoming as the relevant staffer who could provide this information was on vacation.

Rules out at ACC: The Church of England Newspaper, July 16, 2010 p 5. July 22, 2010

The Rev. Canon Janet Trisk of South Africa

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

Observance of the Anglican Consultative Council’s bylaws are discretionary, a spokesman for the organization tells The Church of England Newspaper, when they are inconsistent with its political agenda.

ACC spokesman Jan Butter told CEN the future membership rules of the organization which seek to promote gender parity take precedence over its existing rules.

However, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s press spokesman tells The Church of England Newspaper, the ACC staff’s views are not the final word on the matter, as the appointment of Bishop Ian Douglas and Canon Janet Trisk to the ACC Standing Committee are under legal review.

Weakened by charges of mismanagement following ACC-14 in Jamaica, the credibility and moral integrity of the ACC Standing Committee is now being questioned over the propriety of seating two members whom critics charge are ineligible to serve.

The Anglican Communion News Service (ACNS) reported on July 2 that two new members of the Standing Committee would attend its July 23-27 London meeting.  Bishop Paul Sarker, moderator of the Church of Bangladesh and bishop of Dhaka would attend the meeting in place of the President Bishop of the Middle East, Dr. Mouneer Anis of Egypt, who resigned in protest in February.

ACNS also reported that the Rev. Canon Janet Trisk, rector of the parish of St. David, Prestbury, in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, had been elected at the December Standing Committee meeting to replace resigned lay member, Ms. Nomfundo Walaza of South Africa.

However, the ACC’s bylaws forbid this appointment as Bylaw 7 states that a lay person must replace Ms. Walaza.  When vacancies occur, “the Standing Committee itself shall have power to appoint a member of the Council of the same order as the representative who filled the vacant place,” the bylaws state.

Asked how the appointment could be made in light of the prohibition contained in the constitution, Mr. Butter told CEN the ACC was in the process of adopting new articles of incorporation as it moves from being an “unincorporated charity to becoming a limited company.”

“The appointment of Canon Trisk was made under the terms of the company’s articles which are currently being registered with the Charity Commission.  These articles emphasise the need to achieve balance not only between orders, but also between gender and region,” he said, adding the Standing Committee “in December came to the view that balance could best be achieved by appointing Canon Trisk.”

Asked if copies of the proposed new bylaws were available for review, the ACC responded that “discussions about the Articles are still ongoing between the legal advisor and the Charity Commission, so they are not yet available.”

Canon lawyer Mark McCall of the Anglican Communion Institute noted this “explanation does not pass muster.  Whatever aspirations they may have concerning selections of new members, the standing committee, like the ACC itself, is required to operate within the scope of the constitution and bylaws that are in effect.”

“They cannot ignore existing rules and anticipate new provisions that may come into effect at some future point.   This is in effect a concession that the appointment was ultra vires,” or unlawful, he said.

ACNS also reported that the African member of the Primates Standing Committee, Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda and his alternate, Archbishop Justice Akrofi of West Africa had resigned as well.  A spokesman for the Archbishop of Uganda has confirmed to CEN he had resigned.

Last month the ACI voiced its objections to the continuation of Bishop Ian Douglas on the Standing Committee, noting that his consecration as Bishop of Connecticut required that he relinquish his clergy seat on the ACC, and his place on the Standing Committee.

An aide to a senior African primate said the general mood among the Gafcon primates was weariness with the machinations of the ACC.  They are so disillusioned with the Communion structures that they have “now taken a hands-off approach and are willing to let them just hang themselves,” CEN was told.

The appointment in the name of diversity of Canon Trisk, a white South African priest and lawyer, to replace a black African lay woman was greeted with amusement by other overseas leaders queried by CEN.  At ACC-14 Canon Trisk urged delay in adopting section 4 of the Anglican Covenant, and when that was defeated put forward the amendment to bottle up section four of the Covenant in committee that was successfully carried.

The ACI also noted Canon Trisk does not meet the “recommended criteria” for appointment to the Standing Committee adopted at ACC-6 in 1984.  New members of the Standing Committee should be able to attend two further ACC meetings—Canon Trisk has already attended two and is able to attend only one more under the current rules, and provinces that have never been represented on the Standing Committee should be given preference for vacancies.  Canon Trisk replaces a fellow South African.

“Are we to understand that there was no lay representative and that Canon Trisk was the only clergy representative available to serve from Africa?” Mr. McCall asked, adding the ACC’s “explanation does nothing to satisfy those concerned that the Standing Committee is unwilling to operate within its legal requirements.”

A spokesman for Dr. Rowan Williams told CEN the archbishop was “aware of these membership issues. The Secretary General has referred them to the legal advisor who will report to the Standing Committee,” she said.

Members of new Unity, Faith and Order committee named: CEN 7.10.09 July 16, 2009

The roster for the Inter-Anglican Standing Committee for Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) has been named by Lambeth Palace. The new committee, under the chairmanship of the Primate of Burundi, Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi has been tasked by Dr Rowan Williams to promote the “deepening of Communion” with other ecclesial entities and offer advice on questions of “faith and order”. IASCUFO carries on the work of IASCER and IATDC—the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations and the Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission. Members of the super commission, include: Bishop Titre Ande of Aru in the Congo, Archdeacon Dapo Asaju of Lagos State University, Nigeria, Dr. Paul Avis of the Church of England, Bishop Philip Baji of Tanga, Tanzania, Dr. Alyson Barnett-Cowan of the Anglican Church of Canada, Dr John Gibaut of the World Council of Churches, Bishop Howard Gregory of Montego Bay, West Indies, Dr Katherine Grieb of the Virginia Theological Seminary, Canon Clement Janda of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan, Dr Edison Muhindo Kalengyo of Uganda Christian University, Bishop Victoria Matthews of Christchurch, New Zealand, Dr Charlotte Methuen of Oxford University, Dr Simon Oliver of the University of Nottingham, Bishop Stephen Pickard, the Assistant Bishop of Adelaide, Dr Andrew Pierce of the Irish School of Ecumenics, Dr Michael Nai Chiu Poon of Trinity Theological College, Singapore, The Rev Sarah Rowland Jones of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Dr Jeremiah Yang of Sheng Gong Hui University, Korea and Bishop Tito Zavala of Chile. An initiative first suggested by the Windsor Continuation Group and brought to the 2008 Lambeth Conference, the first meeting for the new super committee will be in December in Canterbury. However, funding for the committee and its work remains precarious. Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.

Anglican Magazine Closes: CEN 12.18.07 December 18, 2007

The Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council has announced that its quarterly magazine, Anglican Episcopal World, will cease publication after 36 years. On Dec 4, Canon Kenneth Kearon told ACC staffers in London the magazine would cease publication immediately after a 126 issue print run. Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.