wfn.org | ACC chairman Bishop John Paterson speaks in Canada

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

     ACNS 4082     |	  ACO	  |	25 NOVEMBER 2005

ACC chairman Bishop John Paterson speaks in Canada

These two stories come to us from the Anglican Church of Canada

Canadian church remains "important part of the Communion"

"The Communion needs Canada and I believe Canada needs the Communion," he 
said, adding that he hopes that the "listening process" that has been put 
in place, will allow churches throughout the communion to appreciate each 
others' differences.

Bishop Paterson addressed CoGS during a two-day visit as the council 
gathered in Mississauga, Ont., Nov. 17-20.

The ACC chair apologised to the Canadian church for the treatment it 
received at the Consultative Council's meeting in Nottingham, Eng., last 
summer.

Bishop Paterson heard presentations to CoGS by Canadians who attended that 
meeting, and later told the council that those presentations "made me 
revisit the daily nightmares I had to face as chair of the ACC. . I did not 
enjoy the last meeting."

He said that if the "listening process" is going to happen, it must happen 
at several levels. "We have to talk to ourselves and to others."

The listening and study process is meant to monitor the work done on the 
subject of human sexuality in the worldwide Anglican Communion as defined 
by the 1998 Lambeth Conference.

Bishop Paterson noted that while a lot of attention is placed on 
Communion-wide divisions, not enough attention is placed on work done at 
the regional level.

"We need to revisit links like partners in mission and companion dioceses 
that allowed us to talk to each other," he said.

He commended both the Episcopal Church of the United States of America 
(ECUSA) and the Anglican Church of Canada as "exemplary" in the attention 
they have given the Windsor Report and for meeting all the requests that 
are contained in the report.

Canadian Anglicans attended the last meeting of the Anglican Consultative 
Council in response to a request by Anglican Primates that the church make 
a presentation on actions the church has taken in the area of same-sex 
blessings.

As well as four presenters, the Primate, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison and 
three elected representatives of the Canadian Church to the consultative 
council attended the meeting, although the members of the council were 
instructed by CoGs not to participate in the proceedings.

CoGS heard reports from several of the people who had attended the meeting.

Bishop Sue Moxley, one of the Canadian members, told CoGs that the decision 
to send members but not to allow them to participate was improperly 
understood by some. She said that while it was important for the Canadians 
to be in Nottingham, "we should never again allow ourselves to be bullied."

Canon Robert Falby, a presenter, noted with regret that after the Canadian 
and U.S. presentations, a scheduled sessions allowing members of the ACC to 
respond was cancelled. "I found that to be a very bad thing," he said.

Canon Falby also noted with concern that there was "a complete 
misrepresentation of what the position of the Anglican Church of Canada is 
on the issue of same-sex blessings. Our message was that we are still a 
church in discussion and that message was deliberately ignored," he noted.

Article from Anglican Church of Canada by Diana Mavunduse

Churches unlikely to pass motion adding primates to ACC, says chair

Speaking to members of the Council of General Synod (CoGS) at their meeting 
here on Nov. 19, Bishop Paterson said there was "a great deal of unease" 
expressed by ACC members at the possibility of the body being dominated by 
primates.

"What happened in Nottingham was that there was deep-seated anger from some 
members of the ACC of primates acting on their own towards ACC," said 
Bishop Paterson. "The primates decided on an action against two churches 
who are members of a body (ACC) mandated by the constitution to be 
consultative. How can it be consultative if two important churches are not 
able to take part?" He added that among ACC members "there's a feeling that 
perhaps we shouldn't allow the primates to meet alone ever again." His 
remark drew laughter from CoGS members.

The primates, during their meeting in February 2005, had requested that the 
Canadian and American churches "voluntarily withdraw" from the ACC meeting 
in Nottingham, England, last June as a step towards restoring unity within 
the Anglican Communion fractured by the issue of same-sex blessings in New 
Westminster and the ordination of a gay bishop in New Hampshire.

"There was a measure of resentment that the primates had acted 
precipitately and punitively to the ACC by saying that Canada and ECUSA 
(Episcopal Church in the United States of America) could not be members of 
the ACC," said Bishop Paterson in an interview with the Anglican Journal.

Bishop Paterson, who is a former primate of New Zealand, said that it would 
take about two to three years to complete the ratification process 
regarding the inclusion of primates to the ACC. The motion, passed during 
the ACC meeting in Nottingham, requires a two-thirds majority vote from 
member churches of the Anglican Communion.

"I don't think it will fly. I don't think it will be approved," he said in 
the interview, noting he was basing his assumption on "a great deal of 
unease" that he has picked up from a number of churches. "It will take a 
full two-to-three-year period for all the member churches to meet and 
engage in a process to find the answer. In that space of time the word will 
move around as to why people don't agree with it. I think that will gain 
momentum."

He said there are two views regarding the inclusion of primates. "The 
feeling was that if we brought them into the body where there is ... the 
only option for lay voice to be heard, that that would be better than 
allowing them to continue to act independently meeting on their own," he 
said. "The other view, which is gaining ascendancy, is the fear that clergy 
and lay people in the ACC would look to the primate to given them a lead as 
to how to decide to vote on any particular issue and that that would 
therefore destroy the importance of the ACC as a really consultative body, 
where the voices of those other than bishops are valued, followed and 
listened to."

Asked whether there would be a common mechanism for ensuring a consultative 
process regarding action on the motion, he said, "I'm assuming that it goes 
before the highest legislative body in each province because that's the way 
most of us work." He added that "the ACC requires that any changes to its 
constitution -- and this is one -- does have to be referred in due process 
to the General Synod or its equivalent in each member church."

In his speech, Bishop Paterson underscored that "the Anglican Church of 
Canada remains an important part of the Anglican Communion; the Communion 
needs Canada and I think Canada needs the Communion." Bishop Paterson was 
invited to attend the CoGS meeting, held Nov. 17-20, by Archbishop Andrew 
Hutchison, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.

He said that both the Canadian and American churches have been "exemplary" 
in adhering to the recommendations of the Windsor Report, which had 
recommended, among others, moratoria on same-sex blessings and the 
ordination of gay bishops.

He also apologized for the way Canadians were treated at the ACC. Both 
Canadian and American churches had sent their ACC members to "attend but 
not participate" in the June 18-29 meeting. While there, the Canadian and 
American delegation said they had felt "exclusion" and "alienation."

"I deeply apologize," he said. "I've been to six ACC meetings for a period 
of 15 years and I really enjoyed and appreciated the chance to meet 
wonderful people around the Communion. But this last year, I cannot say all 
of those things. I did not enjoy this recent meeting ... The level of 
rhetoric, unpleasant language from some parts of our leadership in the 
Communion was distressing to me and I know as distressing to many Anglicans 
around the world."

In his speech, Bishop Paterson also said that:

 a.. The idea of having a common covenant among members of the Anglican 
Communion, as proposed by the Lambeth Commission on Communion, "may be the 
last hope of finding something that helps us stay together;"
 b.. The divisions within the Communion are now so "serious and it may be 
that unity, as opposed to communion, is now something that's in our past;"
 c.. "I'm not a conspiracy theorist but some very good minds in the 
American church suggest that this (the trouble within the Communion) is 
indeed what it is (a conspiracy) and that really worries me."

Article from: Anglican Journal Canada by Marites N. Sison

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