wfn.org | ACNS3653 Archbishop Eames pledges 'path forward' as commission

["Anglican Communion News Service" <acnslist@anglicancommunion.org>]

ACNS 3653     |     ENGLAND	|     28 OCTOBER 2003 

Archbishop Eames pledges 'path forward' as commission named to look at
'Communion' uniting Anglicans

by Bob Williams, The Episcopal News, Los Angeles 

Named today by the Archbishop of Canterbury to lead a 16-member
commission formed to report on "understandings of communion" that unite
Anglicans worldwide, Archbishop Robin Eames of Ireland said this morning
that opportunities for growth and reconciliation can be found amid "what
some are calling a crisis" in Anglicanism worldwide as the Episcopal
Diocese of New Hampshire proceeds with the November 2 ordination of a
bishop living in a same-sex union with his male partner.

"We will try under God to provide channels on communication, channels of
understanding, but most of all a path forward," Archbishop Eames said in
remarks to a previously scheduled gathering here of the Compass Rose
Society, an organization of supporters of the mission of the Anglican
Communion. "Please pray for me," he asked.

Archbishop Eames, who from 1988-93 led a similar international
commission on the ordination of women who now serve as priests and
bishops in many of the Anglican Communion's 38 member churches, said he
did not accept the invitation from Dr Williams "easily" but "there are
times in life that...a situation has to be addressed."

"We have got to maintain the Anglican Communion," he said, who as
Archbishop of Armagh is senior Primate among the 38 prelates who lead
the autonomous member provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

To applause, Archbishop Eames called upon Anglicans to "recognize...what
binds us together more than what may divide some of us." Speaking of the
Primates' meeting in London, October 15-16, he said that "no matter what
views they expressed, the bottom line was, let us remain in Communion."

Archbishop Eames went on to underscore the international respect
accorded to Anglicans for the skills of listening and mediation unique
to their faith tradition. He cited specific examples of Anglican
ministries of outreach and reconciliation amid tensions in the Middle
East, in responding to the refugee crisis in Uganda, in overturning
apartheid in South Africa, and in seeking peace in his own native
Northern Ireland, where he himself was called upon by factions to
negotiate a ceasefire.

"The Anglican Communion enjoys the position of being one of the most
powerful communications agents in the world," he said of the global
network of churches in 164 countries. "Anglicanism has got to be there
as a world body, binding up its wounds, but saying...we have a message
that this world must hear."

To US Episcopalians in the audience, Archbishop Eames said specifically
that the historic "bonds between my country and yours are invincible,"
adding that "there are those of us" among the Primates "who want you"
and who want to maintain "communion" and shared ministries.

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