wfn.org | [ENS] ACC affirms Communion-wide listening process,

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

ACC affirms Communion-wide listening process, members' voluntary
withdrawal

Presiding Bishop offers comment

ENS 062205-4

[ENS, Nottingham, June 22, 2005] -- The Anglican Consultative Council
(ACC)
today unanimously affirmed the "listening process" requested for the
Anglican Communion since 1998 and, in another resolution, endorsed the
Primates' February request that the Episcopal Church and the Anglican
Church
of Canada "voluntarily withdraw their members" from the ACC until the
2008
Lambeth Conference.

The second resolution included an amendment that "interprets reference
to
the Anglican Consultative Council to include its Standing Committee and
the
Inter-Anglican Finance and Administration Committee."

The vote on the second resolution was 30 in favor, 28 against, with 4
abstentions, according to the Anglican Communion Office, and came after
a
two-hour session closed to observers, guests and media.

Commenting after the vote, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold said: "The
vote,
which was contingent on the absence of the six votes of the Episcopal
Church
and the Anglican Church of Canada reveals a divide within the membership
of
the ACC. I very much hope that the listening process now mandated by the
ACC
will be one step in healing this divide. I also hope that the report
submitted by the Episcopal Church to the members of the ACC, "To Set Our
Hope on Christ," will be a useful contribution to that process. The work
and
mission of the Anglican Communion is carried out largely through
international commissions and networks in which the Episcopal Church
continues as a fully active and committed participant. It is through
these
means and our numerous other relationships focused on mission to our
hurting
world that we will, with God's grace, find our way forward."

The second resolution was proposed by ACC member Stanley Isaacs of South
East Asia with a list of 12 supporters including Archbishop Peter
Akinola of
Nigeria.

The full text of the resolutions follows:

Resolution on the Listening Process, as requested by the Primates at
Dromantine

In response to the request of the bishops attending the Lambeth
Conference
in 1998 in Resolution 1.10 to establish "a means of monitoring the work
done
on the subject of human sexuality in the Communion" and to honour the
process of mutual listening, including "listening to the experience of
homosexual persons" and the experience of local churches around the
world in
reflecting on these matters in the light of Scripture, Tradition and
Reason,
the Anglican Consultative Council encourages such listening in each
Province
and requests the Secretary General:

1. To collate relevant research studies, statements, resolutions and
other
material on these matters from the various Provinces and other
interested
bodies within those Provinces; and

2. To make such material available for study, discussion and reflection
within each member Church of the Communion; and

3. To identify and allocate adequate resources for this work, and to
report
progress on it to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to the next Lambeth
Conference and the next meeting of this Council, and to copy such
reports to
the Provinces.

Resolution following the Primates' Statement at Dromantine

The Anglican Consultative Council

1. takes note of the decisions taken by the Primates at their recent
meeting
in Dromantine, Northern Ireland, in connection with the recommendations
of
the Windsor Report 2004;

2. notes further that the Primates there reaffirmed "the standard of
Christian teaching on matters of human sexuality expressed in the 1998
Lambeth Resolution 1.10, which should command respect as the position
overwhelmingly adopted by the bishops of the Anglican Communion";

3. endorses and affirms those decisions;

4. consequently endorses the Primates' request that "in order to
recognise
the integrity of all parties, the Episcopal Church (USA) and the
Anglican
Church of Canada voluntarily withdraw their members from the Anglican
Consultative Council, for the period leading up to the next Lambeth
Conference";

5. interprets reference to the Anglican Consultative Council to include
its
Standing Committee and the Inter-Anglican Finance and Administration
Committee.

-- Reported by Matthew Davies and Bob Williams.