wfn.org | [ENS] ACC votes to add Primates to membership

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

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

ACC votes to add Primates to membership

By Neva Rae Fox

ENS 062205-3

[ENS, Nottingham] -- After discussion in three business sessions, the
Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) voted June 22 to change its
constitution
to include the 37 Primates as ex officio members, thereby increasing the
membership from 78 to 115.

Originally introduced at Monday's session, the action included a
provision
to attempt to ensure balance for clergy and lay members. Under the new
configuration, laity representation would no longer be the majority of
the
ACC, one of the four "instruments of unity" within the Anglican
Communion.
(A detailed ENS report will follow.)

Today's vote, on the third day of business, followed issues raised in
Tuesday's address from ACC Chairman John Paterson, bishop of Auckland,
and
consideration of budgetary reports -- including a 2005 balance sheet
reflecting some $2.6 million or 1.3 million pounds sterling -- in annual
expenses and revenue.

Chairman cites changes

"We are in fact experiencing changes in the inter-relationships of the
Instruments of Unity as we speak," Paterson said in his address,
commenting
on the balance between the work of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Lambeth
Conference of Anglican Bishops, the ACC, and the Primates' Meeting.

The ACC is the principal consultative body of the Anglican Communion and
its
77 million members in 164 countries.

Elected chairman three years ago, Paterson said, "They have been
eventful
years, they have been difficult years, and now more than ever before,
the
Anglican Communion needs the solidarity and the sound common sense which
the
Anglican Consultative Council offers, to be brought to bear in its
affairs."

He spoke frankly about the future. "This full meeting of the Council
will
have to devise a way of dealing with the various recommendations about
our
own membership, about the frequency and timing of meetings of the
Standing
Committee to coincide with meetings of the Primates, about the ex
officio
membership of the Primates' Standing Committee on the ACC and our own
Standing Committee and therefore trustees," he stated.

"Further, the recommendations about the Anglican Communion Office
require
urgent consideration, and of course all these matters have significant
budgetary implications, as do the recent recommendations from the
Primates'
Meeting."

He added, "The ACC needs to take care lest such enhanced responsibility
on
the part of one of the Instruments of Unity move from the art of gentle
persuasion to what has been called 'institutional coercion'."

He referred to the current situation with the Episcopal Church and the
Anglican Church of Canada whose members are attending as observers as
both
voluntarily withdrew from active membership for this meeting as
requested by
the February Primates meeting.

"A body which exists by means of a constitution agreed to by all the
member
churches of the Anglican Communion, and that is required by that
constitution to be 'consultative' cannot consult fully or properly if
all of
its members are not sitting at the same table. It is surely not for one
Instrument of Unity to disempower another?"

Paterson expressed his wish for the Anglican Communion to stay together.
"The ACC gives voice and hope and strength and dignity to those 80
million
or more Anglicans who say they belong to us, and look to us to represent
them, but who are not themselves primates, archbishops, bishops,
priests,
deacons or ACC members.," he said.

"Many Anglicans know what it is to have been colonized, and have no wish
to
repeat that experience in a new colonizing of the mind and heart. Let
ACC-13
declare to our watching and rather anxious church that our Communion is
indeed a living Communion, that God lives, that God loves, and that we
can
continue to worship and serve God from our many different perspectives,
while still proudly calling ourselves 'Anglicans'."

Paterson praised the work of new ACC Secretary General Kenneth Kearon,
and
offered thanks for the work of Kearon's predecessor, the Rev. Canon John
Peterson, who retired last year. Paterson also cited improved working
conditions for the ACC staff, now located at St. Andrew's House in
London.

Paterson noted the importance of the contributions of the Compass Rose
Society and its ongoing fundraising initiatives.  "The Compass Rose
Society
is particularly active in the United States of America, in Hong Kong and
in
Canada," he explained. "The Compass Rose Society has worked hard to
establish an Endowment Fund for the work of the Communion, at a time
when
the cohesiveness and commonality of the Communion itself has been called
into question, and thus their work has been made much more difficult."

For complete text of Paterson's address, see
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/39/75/acns3993.cfm.

Financial report

Citing the weakness of the American dollar against the English sterling
pound, resulting in a 17 percent depreciation over two years, plus the
extra
expenses of funding three meetings of the Lambeth Commission and the
renovations of new quarters, Paterson presented the report of the
Financial
and Administration Committee .

The General Reserve, he said, dipped to 44,010 pounds sterling as of
December 31, 2004.

However, not all the news was bad. "In the last two years, when the
unity
and cohesiveness of the Communion has been anxious, every member church
has
made its contribution," he reported. "There is no church that has
withheld
its grant."

As for this year, "We are doing okay halfway through 2005." This has
been
helped by outside funding from such sources as the UN Advisory Council
and
Trinity Church, Wall Street in Manhattan. He also thanked the Compass
Rose
Society "for assistance in funding the core budget."

The budget projections for 2006-2008 will be presented in later business
sessions.

Family Network

The report of the International Anglican Family Network opened Tuesday
morning's business session.  Presenter Dr. Sally Thompson called the
Family
Network "very important in that it sets out to help families and has
stories
of hope. Hope helps more of us learn."

She described the Family Network Newsletter, issued three times a year
throughout the Anglican Communion with a particular theme. Recent topics
include Women and Poverty, Education and the Family, Families at the
Frontiers of Faiths, Children and Work, and Women and Family.

"The Anglican Family Newsletter is found in the most unlikely places
throughout the communion," Thompson noted.

She hopes to follow up a 2003 conference in Nairobi on Violence and the
Family with a gathering in either in Africa or Asia.  Her other goals
are
increasing international contacts and seeking more financial resources.

In answer to questions from the ACC members, Thompson agreed with the
importance of working closely with the Mothers Union. "The field is so
big,
we need all of us," she said. "Input from the Mothers Union is
important.
Likewise the Family Network helps the Mothers Union."

The report concluded with the unanimous approval of a resolution: "the
ACC
receives the report of the IAFN and thanks the members of the Network
for
their ongoing contribution to the life of the Anglican Communion."

Greetings to York, from Methodists

ACC adopted a resolution "That this council notes with please the news
of
the appointment of the Bishop of Birmingham, Dr. John Sentamu, as
Archbishop
of York, and offers its prayers and good wishes for a fruitful and happy
ministry."

The Rev. Will Morrey, president of the Conference of the Methodist
Church
(Britain) presented the Ecumenical greeting by sharing the covenant work
going on between the Methodists and the Church of England.

"We are not called to simply implement an Anglican-Methodist covenant,
but
what it means to live it," Morrey said. "Only by looking to God and
beyond
ourselves can we hope that our covenant commitment will bring about what
God
wants us to achieve. We find a very rich sense of our sharing together
to
see what God is saying to us from our different perspectives."

-- Neva Rae Fox is a member of the Episcopal News Service team for
ACC-13.
She is director of communications for the Diocese of New York.

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