wfn.org | ACNS Statement from Anglican Provincial Secretaries' Conference

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

ACNS 3878     |     ACO     |     2 SEPTEMBER 2004

Statement from Anglican Provincial Secretaries' Conference

The Provincial Secretaries of the Anglican Communion met in Johannesburg
from 26 August to 2 September 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 Reverend Dr Rowan Williams. They were
welcomed to South Africa by the Primate of the Church of the Province of
Southern Africa, the Most Revd Njongonkulu Ndugane, and by the Bishop of
the Diocese of the Highveld and Dean of the Province, the Right Reverend
David Beetge. Archbishop Njongonkulu 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
organisational 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
programmes.

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.

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