wfn.org | [ACNS] Anglican Consultative Council begins it work

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

ACNS 3992     |     ACO     |	  20 JUNE 2005

Anglican Consultative Council begins it work

Report No.1

Photogaraphs for this article can be found here:
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/39/75/acns3992.cfm

[ACNS staff, 20 June 2005 ] A colourful international procession through
Nottingham's city centre was joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Most Revd Rowan Williams, marking the start of the 10 day meeting of the
Anglican Consultative Council.

Bishops and clergy joined church representatives from more than 50
countries as they filed through the city streets in blazing sunshine, en
route from the Council House to St Peter's Church, where the opening
Eucharist service was held.

Members were greeted by music from Chariots of Joy gospel choir who are
part of the city's Pilgrim Church. The service also included music from
St Peter's Choir who sang a new setting of the World Peace Prayer
composed specially for this occasion by the Director of Music, Philip
Collin.

The preacher was the General Director of the Evangelical Alliance UK, Dr
Joel Edwards.

Taking as his text the fourteenth Chapter of John, Dr Edwards stressed
the context as one framed by the promises of God to those who follow
him.

While the portrait of the relationship between the disciples, Jesus
Christ and God the Father and Holy Spirit was intense and might have
seemed to set the disciples apart from the world this was not the full
truth. This true "society of friends" was called to offer an alternative
vision to the world but not one that merely ran in parallel without ever
making contact with the world. Christian faith is not parallel to
society it must engage with society, for what would be the point of its
message if there was no one else to hear it?

The vision presented in John was one which the world found hard to
comprehend since it brought together love and obedience. Those who truly
loved God obeyed him and did so freely through an obedience made
possible by their love of God. This perspective is one that goes beyond
what the world can understand. It is as challenging to understand as the
puzzle in Edwin Abbot's book facing those in Flatland who lived in a
world of only two dimensions who ultimately had to try and come to terms
with the sphere that presented a third dimension too. The truth revealed
to us in Christ goes beyond a mere coherence which is intellectually
complete within its own terms of reference. Rather, this truth also
corresponds and refers to a world beyond what is merely intellectually
coherent in itself.

Turning to the immediate context, Canon Edwards said that this meeting
of the ACC will be concerned with truth and it is the Holy Spirit which
guides to all truth. While non-conformist by background Canon Edwards
said that his experience of services in St Paul's Cathedral London had
made him come to see in the very Anglican institution of the Verger who
leads processions, an image of the Holy Spirit leading us into the right
place. How will the Holy Spirit help, guide, console and challenge us?
How will the Holy Spirit propel us beyond the confines of debate into a
world interested in truth and the current issues and challenges of every
day life? The Holy Spirit is an advocate of the Kingdom for all who seek
so that all will come to know Him who is truth itself. Yet it is that
truth which must always mean the church will be a challenge to society
as we seek to bring people to the truth in Christ.

Canon Edwards closed his sermon with a final literary reference to the
figure of Lucy in the Narnia novels by C.S. Lewis who found the way into
the land of Narnia through the famous wardrobe. She had been driven to
find that opening by a spirit of exploration and by imagination and her
final insight was to leave the door open saying that it would be silly
to shut oneself in!

In June 2001, The Revd Joel Edwards was appointed as one of the first
Honorary Canons of St Paul's Cathedral in London. The Evangelical
Alliance which he heads was founded in 1846, and brings together a
majority of Britain's 1.39 million Evangelicals. Included in Alliance
membership are over 7,000 organisations and churches whose views it aims
to represent.

The Lessons read at the Service were Acts 2, 1-21 and John 14, 23-26

Part of the service included a special welcoming and commissioning for
the new Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, the Revd Canon
Kennneth Kearon, which was led by the Bishop of Auckland, the Right Revd
John Paterson.

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