wfn.org | [ENS] Statement from Anglican Provincial Secretaries' Conference

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

Thursday, September 2, 2004

Statement from Anglican Provincial Secretaries' Conference

ENS 090204-1

[Anglican Communion News Service] - The Provincial Secretaries of the 
Anglican Communion met in Johannesburg from August 26 to September 2, 2004. 
This was the fifth conference in a series started in the 1980s and the 
first to be held in Africa. The conference, like those before it, was an 
informal meeting designed to assist Provincial Secretaries -- the chief 
administrators for each province -- in their professional development, to 
increase knowledge and experience of the challenges facing provinces and to 
strengthen bonds within the Anglican Communion.

Attendance exceeded that achieved at the previous conference at Toronto in 
2000. Representatives came from 32 provinces (see below), together with 
representatives of the Churches of Cuba and Sri Lanka, the Anglican 
Communion Office and the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA). In 
addition, two Provincial Secretaries had to send last minute apologies as a 
result of illness.

The Provincial Secretaries received a letter of greetings from the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Dr. Rowan Williams. They were 
welcomed to South Africa by the Primate of the Church of the Province of 
Southern Africa, the Most Rev. Njongonkulu Ndungane, and by the Bishop of 
the Diocese of the Highveld and Dean of the Province, the Rt. Rev. David 
Beetge. Ndungane reminded the conference of the importance of 'ubhuntu' -- 
'I am, because we are together.'

The conference heard presentations and held workshops on a range of 
practical matters including communications, fundraising, financial 
sustainability, church governance and the role Provincial Secretaries can 
have in fostering unity. Time was spent considering general organizational 
issues within the Anglican Communion. The conference also considered some 
of the big social and economic issues of our time, in particular, poverty, 
fair trade, HIV and AIDS, and the important contribution to tackling them, 
which partnership among churches of the Communion is achieving.

A session of the conference was devoted to discussing current issues of 
division in the Anglican Communion and the particular role which Provincial 
Secretaries have to play in promoting dialogue and manifesting a bias 
towards unity for the sake of the Church's mission to the world. There was 
a shared recognition of the importance at this present time of seeking to 
find ways to maintain unity within the Communion.

The Provincial Secretaries each reported on their own provinces. Moving 
stories were told of courage and perseverance in situations where 
Christians continue to experience discrimination and persecution for their 
faith and are denied full freedom to proclaim openly the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ. There was also much encouragement from the sharing of examples of 
effective mission and evangelism.

Through presentations, Sunday worship in churches in the Diocese of the 
Highveld, and visits to Soweto, the Apartheid Museum and several church 
supported projects in the East Rand, the Provincial Secretaries learned 
much about the huge process of change still taking place in South Africa. 
It was brought home to them how much more remained to be done to overcome 
the grievous legacy of apartheid and in particular to ensure that political 
freedom is accompanied by greater economic and social justice.

The conference spent time focusing on the enormous and growing threat which 
the HIV and AIDS epidemic poses to the fabric of society in sub-Saharan 
Africa. Provincial Secretaries learned with sorrow that South Africa, with 
all the other challenges it faces, is thought to have the largest number of 
people living with HIV (5.4 million) of any nation in the world, and by 
2010 faces a drop in life expectancy to 43 (17 years less than it would 
have been before the epidemic). Provincial Secretaries committed themselves 
to promoting within their provinces the continuing, vital importance of 
effective, well resourced HIV and AIDS programs.

All who attended were greatly encouraged and supported in their own 
Christian discipleship through the times of worship, fellowship, frank 
discussion and the gift of unity experienced. There was unanimous 
endorsement of the value of these meetings and agreement that planning 
should be put in hand for the next in the series in 2007.

Anglican Provinces represented: Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia; 
Australia; Bangladesh; Brazil; Burundi; Canada; Central American Region; 
England; Hong Kong; Indian Ocean; Ireland; Japan; Kenya; Korea; Melanesia; 
Mexico; Myanmar; North India; Pakistan; Papua New Guinea; Philippines; 
Rwanda; Scotland; South India; Southern Africa; Southern Cone of America; 
Sudan; Tanzania; USA; Wales; West Africa; West Indies. Congo and Jerusalem 
and the Middle East sent last minute apologies because of sickness. Of the 
32 Provincial representatives, three were bishops, eleven clergy and 
eighteen laity. Five were female. The Cuba, Sri Lanka and CAPA 
representatives were lay, one of them female.