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99-151

Anglican Consultative Council sifts through issues 
from Lambeth Conference

by James Solheim

     (ENS) Some of the frustrations from the 1998 Lambeth 
Conference of the world's Anglican bishops spilled over to a
meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in Scotland, 
as it spent a dozen days in mid September sorting through issues 
of unity, sexuality, international debt and globalization. The theme 
itself, "The Communion We Share," gave a clue to such continuing
concerns.
     Formed in 1968 to provide a forum to deal with pressing 
concerns of Anglicans worldwide, the ACC has no authority over 
the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion.
     In an unusually blunt presidential address, Archbishop of 
Canterbury George Carey said that Anglicans do not live by the 
principle of "anything goes," that "the constant interplay of Scripture, 
tradition and reason provide limits to diversity."
     As Christians struggle to share their faith with the world around 
them, "vigorous debate and healthy intellectual engagement" are 
inevitable, he said. But he repudiated unilateral action by dioceses 
and provinces within the Anglican Communion.
     "No one has the right to take decisions that affect the whole," 
he said, warning that "unilateral action which affects and impairs the 
whole communionXto engage in division is itself to undermine the
truth."
     Pointing to the absence of Archbishop Moses Tay of Southeast 
Asia, who was boycotting the meeting because it was being held in
"one of the most heretical provinces" in the church, under the leadership 
of Primus Richard Holloway of Scotland, Carey said, "We are poorer 
without his voice." At the same time, the archbishop disagreed with the 
central thesis in Holloway's book, "Godless Morality," which suggests 
that God could be left out of the moral debate.
     Holloway later said that he and Carey came from "very different 
theological traditions" and that "disagreement is central to the search 
for truth in complex areas, such as theology and ethics."

No change in composition of ACC

     Efforts to increase the size of the ACC and make it more 
representative were rebuffed. The call to take a closer look at the 
composition of the ACC, regarded as one of the "instruments of unity"
for the Anglican Communion, came from the last meeting of the ACC,
in Panama in 1996, and from the Lambeth Conference which asked 
that the primate, a presbyter and person from each province be sent to 
ACC.
     By a vote of 33 in favor and 28 against, the ACC chose not to make 
any changes. On the other hand, the ACC endorsed the idea of an 
Anglican Congress to be held in association with the next Lambeth 
Conference. It urged the archbishop of Canterbury to invite the diocesan 
bishop and four other persons, three of them laity, at least one a woman 
and one under the age of 28.
     The Virginia Report, a theological exploration of the basis of unity in
the Anglican Communion prepared for the Lambeth Conference, provoked 
some spirited debate at the ACC.
     "It contains two contrasting trends, one which is centralizing and 
hierarchical, and another which is synodical and is characterized of life in 
all our provinces," said Dean John Moses of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. 
He worried that the Virginia Report would be used as an instrument to 
increase the drift towards a curia or centralized authority for Anglicans.
     Holloway said that the ACC was one of the few structured vehicles in 
Anglicanism that might resist the tendency in the report to increase the 
authority of the archbishop of Canterbury, the primates and the episcopate 
in general.
     The discussion also provoked an impatience among some delegates 
who resented the navel-gazing when there were more pressing issues in 
the world. Archbishop Glauco Soares de Lima, primate of the Episcopal 
Church in Brazil, expressed his concern about the on-going colonialism 
between countries and churches in the North and the South. He said that 
the report "is a sign of a still-colonial mind, even in the structures
described."
     Michael Hare Duke, former bishop of St. Andrews, later called for 
Carey's resignation, charging that "he just did not have the steel to lead the
church into the 21st century while things remained in such disarray." He was 
dismayed by the public row between Carey and Holloway and said that 
most of the ACC meeting "centered on the issue of authority, who calls the 
shots in the Communion, but this should not be the priority for a church 
when society is concerned about the survival of the planet and the genocide
in Kosovo and East Timor."

Testimonies from gays and lesbians

     In a meeting chaired by Holloway, ACC delegates listened--in closed 
session--"respectfully and attentively" to gays and lesbians. 
     The session was in response to a Lambeth Conference resolution "to 
listen to the stories of gay and lesbian people, and we are trying hard not to
make it a divisive issue," said Archbishop John Paterson of Aotearoa/New 
Zealand, ACC vice president and chair of the planning committee.
     While some complained that the five presentations all advocated
acceptance of homosexuality and were therefore not representative, Bishop 
Richard Harries of Oxford called it "a very positive step forward in the 
church's dialogue on this issue." He called it "a genuine issue that everybody 
has to grapple with, although people might have different degrees of conviction.
The only way forward is by genuine listening to people of all points of view."
     Bishop Simon Chiwanga of Tanzania, chairman of the ACC, said that it was
"a unique experience of testimony and witness" as gay and lesbian Christians
"shared with us their own story and pilgrimage."
     Chiwanga said in his statement, "The whole area of human sexuality is 
complex, personal and comes wrapped in cultural understandings," provoking 
"broad and diverse" reactions. He said that Carey, in consultation with
Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, "has initiated a consultation between bishops 
representing all shades of opinion within the Communion. The first gathering 
of the group will take place in November in New York."
     "It will be a conversation where we will look at how we understand the 
Bible and hear what homosexuals are saying," said Carey. "There will be no 
time limit, it may take many years. We need to get the African bishops and 
their churches to discuss this and not be fearful of the issue."
     Debate over sexuality erupted in response to the report of the Anglican 
Peace and Justice Network and a resolution that called for support of gay 
rights, introduced by the Rev. Sam Koshiishi of Japan. It was withdrawn. 
Bishop Michael Ingham of Canada protested the failure of the ACC to 
address this issue and called its hesitance a "shameful failure of nerve." He 
expressed dismay that Koshiishi was pressured to withdraw the motion. 
The network will "consider the justice dimensions of the debate over 
homosexuality, in the hope of contributing to the dialogue called for in 
the Lambeth resolution."
     A proposal for network status for a mission and evangelism group 
sponsored by American conservatives was referred to the next ACC 
after several delegates expressed reservations. Moses suggested that 
recognizing the Network of Anglicans in Mission and Evangelism (NAME) 
would actually be setting up "a parallel structure" to work already being 
done by the ACC.

Keeping in step

     On the last day of the meeting Carey returned to the issue of Anglican 
unity and authority. "We have to ask whether we are a federation of 
autonomous churches or an international communion which speaks with 
one voice. Whether we like it or not, political leaders and other church 
leaders look to the archbishop of Canterbury. Unless we speak together 
as primates and submit to one another in communion, we will lose the 
respect of other churches," he said.
     Carey concluded, "We must keep in step with one another. The 
moment the local steps out of line with the whole, the communion is 
threatened." He opened the possibility that there might be times when 
he should be able to speak for the whole Anglican Communion on 
certain issues.
In other action, the ACC:
     *resolved to strengthen its efforts and advocacy in favor of cancellation
of the international debt of poor countries;
          *encouraged a request for an Anglican Urban Network, asking for 
a report at ACC-12 on the "scope and viability" of a Faith in an Urban 
World Commission;
          *affirmed the importance of the Office of Anglican Observer at the 
United Nations, stressing the importance of the church's voice in the halls 
of political power.

--James Solheim is director of News and Information for the Episcopal 
Church. This article is based on news reports by Ian Douglas, James Rosenthal,
Margaret Rogers and Manesseh Zindo at the ACC meeting.