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2000-038

Theologians call for deeper examination of Anglicanism in light 
of globalization

by Kenneth Arnold

     Responding to the need to get serious about the implications 
of globalization within the Anglican Communion, nearly 100 
scholars gathered in New York February 10 and 11 to discuss 
"Tradition and Innovation in Anglicanism:  Hermeneutics in a 
Global Communion." Sponsored by the Fellows Forum of the 
Episcopal Church Foundation, the conference was intended to 
promote "reasoned theological discourse," according to its 
convenor, the Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas of Episcopal Divinity School, 
Cambridge, Massachusetts.

     Featuring fellows of the foundation as presenters, 
respondents, and moderators, the event included informal after-
dinner remarks from Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, who spoke 
of the importance of reasoned conversation, noting that the 
theological enterprise has a "pastoral dimension."

     Against the backdrop of the irregular consecration of two 
American priests to the episcopate in Singapore on January 29, 
the papers delivered at the conference were especially timely. A 
series of four panels examined cultural diversity within 
Anglicanism from theological, ethical, liturgical, pastoral, 
biblical, and historical perspectives.  Virtually all of the 
speakers addressed the question of authority and community in a 
communion now centered in the global South. The Rev. Dr. Titus 
Presler, rector of St. Peter's Church in Cambridge and a former 
missionary in Zimbabwe, put it most pointedly in his paper: "The 
heartland of Christianity is now in Africa."

     Articulating the message that dominated the discussions, the 
Rev. Harold Lewis stated in his homily at the opening Eucharist 
that "the Anglican Communion is no longer English. The African 
and Asian provinces bring new perspectives to the table. We need 
to imagine a church that includes all, in which the new does not 
obliterate the past but enriches it."

A larger theological conversation

     In his after-dinner remarks, Griswold agreed that there is a 
broadening sense of what it means to be Anglican as the West is 
being challenged to have a larger theological conversation. It is 
important, he said, to think theologically as events unfold. "We 
need to challenge our arrogant ways of looking at things; we need 
to be able to receive the gifts of others in the global community 
if they are to receive ours."

     Whether considering complex theological questions of 
contextuality and hermeneutics, biblical interpretation of  
subversive texts, syncretistic worship in Africa, or the oddities 
of Prayer Book revision in the church, the speakers agreed that 
"tradition" is rarely as obvious as it might seem and innovation 
may lead not "forward" to novelty but back to long-held beliefs. 
But all seemed to assent to the Rev. Dr. Robert Hughes' closing 
homily, in which he asserted that everything, even high-level 
theology, must be for mission. "The purpose of the Fellows Forum 
is to advance the Kingdom and build the church."

     The five major papers delivered during the forum were by The 
Rev. Dr. Christopher Duraisingh, Episcopal Divinity School; 
Presler; Dr. Ellen Davis, Virginia Theological Seminary; the Rev. 
Dr. Cynthia Kittredge, Episcopal Theological Seminary of the 
Southwest; and the Rev. Dr. J. Robert Wright, General Theological 
Seminary. Formal responses to the papers were offered by the Rev. 
Dr. Ephraim Radner, Church of the Ascension, Pueblo, Colorado; 
the Rev. Dr. Leander Harding, St. John's Church, Stamford, 
Connecticut; and the Rev. Dr. Robert Prichard, Virginia 
Theological Seminary.

Multi-colored wisdom of God

     Duraisingh described conditions in which cross-cultural 
dialogue might take place, an urgent need if the church is to 
discern and witness to "the multi-colored wisdom of God." The 
necessary conditions are: the understanding that tradition is not 
something to be owned but is a process; and that the one 
universal church is now manifested in and known through the local 
community.

     In his response, Radner cited the danger of confusing 
language about plurality and diversity with the language of 
consumer culture.  The dispute at the Lambeth Conference in 1998, 
he said, was not about cultural pluralities but about the 
perceived integrity of the gospel.  The dispute is theological 
and cannot be resolved as an issue of cultural diversity, he 
argued.

     Speaking of his experiences as a missionary in Zimbabwe, 
Presler urged that we understand Anglicanism as a world religion 
which is changed in local experience. He proposed an 
international assessment of Anglicanism, which he termed "The 
Barnabas Project," to inform the church about the world as the 
Zacchaeus Project did about the church in the United States.

     The Zacchaeus Project was an in-depth study of Episcopal 
identity at the congregational level, executed in 1998 and 1999 
by the Episcopal Church Foundation as part of its 50th 
anniversary celebration.  It found that Episcopalians are 
generally satisfied with their congregational life and are aware 
of but mostly untouched by issues and controversies that 
preoccupy the church at other levels.

     Harding offered in his reply to Presler a distinction 
between those who believe in a God who wills to be known (in 
revelation through scripture and tradition) and a hidden God 
(known in experience) as central to the difficulty in 
communication between the West and the two-thirds world. The God 
who is known in revelation is more characteristic of the two-
thirds world. In the West, he suggested, experience trumps 
everything, including reason and revelation.

     Turning to scripture, Davis suggested ways of reading 
scripture that reveal how tradition preserves our mistakes as 
well as our insights. Living in tradition includes tension. Such 
critical traditionalism helps us come to terms with embarrassing 
or offensive texts, she said.

Voices from the margins

     Kittredge said in response that a community's experience of 
tradition is an essential element in negotiating meaning. There 
is a significant change now in how we define community as 
different cultures bring new interpretations to the gospel; 
previously unheard voices can open the way to transformation from 
the margins.

     In his witty exploration of the relationship between 
tradition and innovation, Wright argued that there is not a clear 
boundary between the two. Tradition is never really the enemy of 
innovation unless one is trying to establish a case in favor of 
some innovation that must necessarily reject some tradition. 
Drawing on certain resolutions at Lambeth 1998, he commented on 
proposed structural solutions to the problem of adjudicating 
questions in the Communion, focused on extended authority of the 
primates.

     Responding to Wright, Prichard expressed doubt about 
structural solutions, but affirmed the role history can play in 
leading us to often surprising discoveries about who we are as 
Anglicans.

     "Who we are as Anglicans" was perhaps the overriding subject 
of the meeting. The clear message brought by this group of 
theologians is that Anglicans are Christians who live in a state 
of constant tension between tradition and innovation. There is no 
way out because it is a fundamental fact of identity. 

     Conference participants included representatives from all 11 
Episcopal seminaries as well as a healthy mix of parish priests, 
independent scholars, writers, editors, and faculty from both the 
religious and secular academy.  The Fellows Forum is an outgrowth 
of the Foundation's Fellowship Program, established in 1964 to 
develop the learned leadership of the Episcopal Church.

     The papers, responses, homilies and other comments from the 
forum are to be published later this year in the Anglican 
Theological Review.

--The Rev. Deacon Kenneth Arnold is editor of Crosscurrents, an 
interreligious, interdisciplinary quarterly published by the 
Association for Religion and Intellectual Life.