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Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion 2008 Triennial

Posted On : June 23, 2008 5:11 PM | Posted By : Admin ACO
Related Categories: Hong Kong

ACNS: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2008/6/23/ACNS4413

The Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion (CUAC) met at
Chung Chi College in Hong Kong during the last week in May. With more
than 120 institutions on all five continents, the association promotes
cross-cultural contacts and educational programs. This global network of
colleges and universities strives to assist faculty and students to
become better global citizens of an increasingly pluralistic world.

Owing to its wide geographical distribution, CUAC meets once every three
years, intentionally seeking to convene near a major Anglican center.
Hong Kong was therefore a natural choice, guided by the demographic
growth of the Anglican Communion in Asia as well as the historic
importance of Chung Chi College and the Anglican Church in Hong Kong.
The organizers in the Asia-Pacific region chose "Excellence, Character,
Service" as the guiding theme of the conference. The Most Rev. Paul
Kwong, Primate of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, emphasized the
interrelationship among the three in his sermon at the opening
Eucharist.

As the conference progressed, participants identified the problem in
higher education that specialization can lead to fragmented approaches
that fail to encourage personal growth as they should. CUAC was founded
in 1993 under the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and it has
maintained a consistent purpose within an integrative perspective on
education:

-enhance international/intercultural understanding through education,
-develop visits and exchanges for students, faculty and administrators,
-engage students and faculty in volunteer service to people in need,
-schedule meetings and conferences on topics related to higher
education,
-communicate regularly through bulletins and newsletters,
-promote joint curricular development,
-encourage sharing of institutional and educational resources,
-promote scholarly journals, research, and joint degrees.

CUAC has held international conferences for administrators, chaplains
and faculty in Delhi, Toronto, and Tokyo as well as at Canterbury and
York. It publishes a peer-reviewed Academic Journal called Prologue in
addition to its newsletter, Compass Points, and also runs a website to
facilitate exchanges, joint programs and services. Although participants
in the conference expressed satisfaction in what CUAC has achieved, they
also identified the challenge of developing specific models of education
in a diverse world that address the integration of academic excellence,
ethical character, and social service.

CUAC is an association of colleges and universities around the world who
have historic or current ties with the various churches of the Anglican
Communion, including those churches that have entered into ecumenical
partnerships or unions. The diversity that the association embodies was
especially apparent when the conference as a whole visited Mainland
China, meeting with leaders and students at Lignan College, Sun Yat-sen
University, Union Theological Seminary, as well as churches in Guangzhou
and Shenzen. The vitality of these communities and their dedication to
learning were as apparent as their enthusiasm for ecumenical inclusion
and liturgical practice. A guest lecture on the history of the Church in
China prior to departure for the Mainland by Professor Leung Yuen Sang,
the Head of Chung Chi College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong,
provided critical perspective on the experience. The experience itself
provided direct evidence of thriving and growing communities, committed
to education and Christian faith together, living in a working
relationship within the People's Republic of China.

Within this setting of growth, the particular purpose of the
conference's host institution, Chung Chi College, stood out clearly.
Under the leadership of the Rev. Professor Lung-kwong Lo, the Divinity
School of Chung Chi College has developed a coordinated program within
the Chinese University of Hong Kong, so that academic excellence can be
valued both in secular settings and within the practice of faith. By
means of the impressive development of the Chinese University of Hong
Kong, of which Chung Chi College is an affiliate institution, this
member institution of CUAC is poised to play a key role in the growth of
Christianity in China, a major factor for Church life and international
relations during the twenty-first century.

After the visit of the conference to the mainland, the keynote address
by Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, "The Anglican Way in Higher
Education," set out the nature of the strengths that the Anglican
Communion brings to the pluralism that is increasingly the environment
of faith:

Anglicanism is not 'one size fits all'. It provides God's tailor-made
coat of many colours for every one of us! One of the strengths of the
Anglican way of being Christian is precisely this enrichment that comes
from legitimate diversity, and of the resources it gives us to deal with
diversity - whether we face it within Anglicanism, within the ecumenical
life of the difference Christian churches, or within the widely varying
cultures of our world, into which we, and our young people, are called
to be salt and light.

The controversy among Anglicans regarding ministry in its relation to
sexual orientation was very much on participants' minds.  Although
profound disagreement was acknowledged, at the same time the conviction
remained that attempts to divide the Anglican Communion, rather than to
address the causes of contention, reflect an inadequate understanding of
the Church as the body of Christ. A measure of that conviction is CUAC's
choice of meeting in the United States in 2011, at the University of the
South in Tennessee. Many who participated in the conference saw CUAC as
an important instrument of communion during a period of stress.

Archbishop Ndungane also reported on the Historic Schools Restoration
Project in South Africa, which seeks to bring back educational centers
that had been deliberately run down during the period of Apartheid. As
he said, "The Historic Schools Restoration Project is not specifically
Christian, but I hope you can see how Christian values and aspirations
are mirrored within it." This principle of joining in action in the
service of Christ, whether or not Christianity is specifically invoked,
proved to be another key emphasis of the conference.

Another major address, by Margaret (Peggy) Pusch, the Associate Director
of the Intercultural Communication Institute, stressed the value of
service learning as an educational approach. Both her presentation and
several panels of participants explored the integrating power of service
to bring academic excellence into the formation of character. All
previous Triennials involved CUAC members giving presentations, speeches
and panels, but often by invitation only. This Triennial encouraged all
delegates to contribute to the Participant Presentations, where reports
were given on some of the programs and projects of their colleges and
universities. This approach resulted in a much fuller sense of the
richness of the constituent institutions, and facilitated direct contact
between them in regard to the exchange of students and faculty and the
development of common programs for service and study.

A measure of the success of the meeting is that its final business
session undertook to enhance CUAC in two specific dimensions. First, the
variety of ways in which service has been and is being conducted caused
participants to commend that diversity, and not to seek a single
programmatic approach. Second, the particular capacity of Anglicanism to
offer common purpose in the midst of difference and even controversy
brought the members to seek in future to articulate that aim within an
agreed statement of purpose.

> By Bruce Chilton

> Ends

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