wfn.org | [ENS] Women's voices affirmed in international reports to ACC

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

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Women's voices affirmed in international reports to ACC

ENS 062505-1

By Neva Rae Fox

[ENS, Nottingham] -- Voices of women describing their status around the
world were heard June 25 as the Anglican Observer to the United Nations
presented a report to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), meeting
here
through June 28.

"I am committed to making sure that the policies of the UN states do
include
a strong gender perspective and are based on universal human rights,"
said
the observer, Archdeacon Taimalelagi Fagamalama Tuatagaloa-Matalavea, a
Samoan laywoman, in her report.

ACC also heard an overview of the recently published "Mary, Grace and
Hope
in Christ," a document praised by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan
Williams.
"There is a common affirmation that if we understand a bit better what
we
say about Mary we'll understand a bit better about the church," Williams
told the ACC.

In the fifth business day of its ongoing meeting at England's University
of
Nottingham, the ACC also reviewed the council's trienniel budget,
conducted
elections and considered various resolutions, including one that calls
for
establishing a safe place for children and the vulnerable.

The ACC is the Anglican Communion's chief consultative body and one of
four
"instruments of unity" among the world's 77 million Anglicans in 164
countries.

Voice of Women

"The UN Commission on the Status of Women has raised the visibility of
the
Anglican Communion at the United Nations," the Anglican Observer told
the
ACC.

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) was formed
"in
order that women's rights in political, economic, civil, social and
educational fields and, emerging issues could be tracked by the United
Nations," she explained.

Her report to ACC was highlighted by "For Such a Time as Now," a video
presentation detailing the UNCSW March 2005 gathering which brought
Anglican
Women from throughout the Communion to New York City. The video
interviews
featured women telling their own stories and chronicling their own
experiences.

Two speakers interviewed on tape urged Anglican bishops to address
violence
against women, and to allow for wider representation of women on
Anglican
decision-making bodies.

Dr. Pauline Muchina of Africa called bishops to "compassion and passion
to
challenge domestic violence against women," while Dr. Jenny Te Paa of
New
Zealand said women "need to be at ACC, we need to be at the Primates
Meeting."

(Some of the video reports are posted online at
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/un and at an Episcopal Church site:
http://www.anglicanlistening.org)

The archdeacon noted that women's voices were also heard through
Anglican
Women's Empowerment, founded under the leadership of Phoebe Griswold,
wife
of Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, to provide direct assistant to the
ACCUN
office for Anglican's Women participation at UN activities, especially
UNCSW.

"It was established to bring assistance from all over the world," she
said.
"In 2005 we have 25 provinces represented at the meeting."

The archdeacon outlined six areas of concentration for the UN office:
women;
children; sustainable communities (development), human rights; the
rights of
indigenous people; economic and social security with a special emphasis
on
countries under conflict.

She emphasized a recently published journal "Healing God's Creation,"
the
result of the Global Anglican Congress on Stewardship of Creation.

"If you are convinced of the urgency of the crisis in our environment,
please get a copy of this book," she said.

Information about the book and the accompanying study guides are also
available through the Anglican Communion's website.

Further blending the voices of women, the archdeacon ended her
presentation
with a rousing rendition of a song she composed and titled "Reduce,
Reuse,
Repair, Recycle, Rethink, Repent, Rejoice." Women ACC representatives
joined
her at the front of the auditorium to sing together at her invitation.

Roman Catholic dialogue; 'Mary document'

The afternoon session began with an Ecumenical Greeting by Roman
Catholic
priest Don Bolen, a representative of the Pontifical Council for
Promoting
Christian Unity, on behalf of Cardinal Walter Kasper.

"We were glad for the attentiveness to ecumenical concerns," the
Cardinal
wrote in his letter.

When the Archbishop of Canterbury asked for commented on the Windsor
report,
"We have been able to speak with an openness that in the past was not
possible," Kaspar observed. "When reflecting on what would help our
relationship to flourish, I like to think of the Windsor Report as a
starting point, rather than a point of arrival."

The greeting preceded a report on the Anglican-Roman Catholic
International
Commission (ARCIC), presented by the Rev. Canon Gregory Cameron, the
ACC's
deputy secretary general and its director of ecumenical affairs and
studies.

The relationship, he said, will mark the 40-year point next year when
"Paul
VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey met in Rome at the end of Vatican II
and
inaugurated a new era of ecumenical relations."

Cameron added: "One of the first dialogues to be sent up was the
Anglican -
Roman Catholic Commission. It's a flagship dialogue, a model dialogue to
which others have aspired."

"There are more instruments for deepening our communication than between
any
two Christian dialogue partners," Bolen said, also mentioning the
Anglican
Center of Rome. "This is an excellent means of communications and for
building bridges," he added. He further cited the role of the
International
Anglican Roman Catholic Commission and Unity Mission. "There is no
parallel
organization in any other bilateral discussions," Bolen said. "Our close
relationships have allowed us to speak very candidly with each other."

Cameron listed the agreed statements that have been issued by ARCIC:
"Salvation and the Church," 1987; "Church as Communion," 1991; "Life in
Christ," 1994; "Gift of Authority," 1999; and "Mary, Grace and Hope in
Christ," 2005, which was the topic of the ACC presentation.

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold is among contributors to the Mary
document.

Nottingham's Roman Catholic Bishop Malcolm McMahon told the ACC that
"for
Roman Catholics, the devotions to Mary the Mother of God are very much
the
way of everyday life. It's an ordinary way to be a Christian to believe
those documents. We always want to acknowledge that Mary is close to all
Christians. What we are anxious to do is to show that we are very much
in
line with biblical scholarship.

He added: "What the document offers the church as a whole is an
important
exercise in understanding each other. From the Roman Catholic point of
view,
it's really quite a revelation to look at the continuity of the Anglican
liturgical devotion to Mary. That's an important point for Roman
Catholics
to understand."

McMahon concluded: "We hope that this document will prove not just to be
an
important landmark, a paving stone to ecumenism, but because of the
issue
that have come up in our discussion, mostly the communion of saints,
this
will actually be a springboard to future discussions and will help us to
understand each other much more. It's a good document, even if you
disagree
with it."

In response to a question, Cameron admitted that the ARCIC did not look
at
the implications of this document from a Muslim viewpoint and promised
to
share with NIFCON, the Anglican Communion's Network on Interfaith
Concerns.

"I hope that a careful reading of this document might help to dispel
that
sort of misunderstanding. One of the traditional Protestant fears is
that
Mary is made into some kind of semi-divine being taking her place beside
God. That was taken into consideration," Cameron noted.

"I think that part of the purpose of the document in the most limited
sense
is to ask is it the case that Roman Catholic teaching about Mary is so
opposed to what Anglicans have traditionally had in Scripture that we
should
keep an arm's length from each other," Williams said. "There is an
almost
unavoidable balance in that.

In its resolution, ACC welcomed the publication Mary Grace and Hope in
Christ and "respectfully requests his holiness the Pope and the
Archbishop
of Canterbury to proceed to the commissioning of a third phase of ARCIC
and
of theological dialogue between the Anglican Communion and the Roman
Catholic Church in pursuit of the full visible unity of Christ's Body
here
on earth which is the stated goal for the ecumenical question in both
traditions."

(Copies of "Mary Grace and Hope in Christ" may be ordered from Morehouse
Continuum books.)

Election results

ACC voted to elect two members to its Inter-Anglican Finance and
Administration Committee and five members to the Standing Committee.
Terms
of office run for three ACC meetings, a timeframe that can range up to
9-10
years.

Elected to the Inter-Anglican Finance and Administrative Committee were
the
Rev. Canon Dr. Mwiti Akiri, provincial secretary form the Province of
Tanzania, and Robert Fordham, an accountant who served as a member of
parliament from the Province of Australia.

Other nominees for this office were Humphrey Peters, general secretary
for
the church of Pakistan and Dr Pauline Sathiamurthy, a university teacher
from the Province of South India.

Elected to the Standing Committee were: Philippa Amable, a lawyer from
West
Africa; Fordham; the Rt. Rev Kumara Illangasinghe, Bishop of Kurunagala
in
the provinces of Ceylon; lay Canon Elizabeth Paver, a primary head
teacher
from England; and Nomfundo Walaza, executive director of trauma center
for
survivors of violence and torture from the Province of Southern Africa

Also nominated were: Maria Christina Borges Alvare, lay minister
awaiting
ordination of Cuba; Dato Stanley Isaacs a lawyer in Malaysia in the
Province
of Southeast Asia; The Rev. Andres Gregorio Lenton form the diocese of
Argentina in the Province of Southern Cone; The Rt. Rev Carlos
Lopez-Lozano,
bishop of the Spanish reformed Episcopal Church in the province of
Spain; Dr
Barton Scotland, a attorney from the province of West Indies; and Kate
Turner, who runs a non-government organization for conflict resolution
in
Ireland

Because the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada voluntary
withdrew their participation for this meeting, the representatives were
not
eligible to run for office.

Budgets for next three years

"We have a limited about of money, and it would be good to get your
ideas on
priorities on how to spend it," Finance Director Andrew Franklin opened
the
budget hearings.

"In the 2005 forecast we expected to balance the budget," Franklin
continued. "Reserves are quite low and there is little room for margin
of
error. The budget is 1.3 million pounds with 44,000 pounds in reserve. "

Noting that "85 % of the money comes from you, the provinces," he noted,
"Every year we request funds form you and most of your do your best to
pay
that in full."

For 2005, the operating budget income from member churches was 1.1
million
pounds sterling (about $2 million), with an additional 160,000 pounds
sterling from the Compass Rose Society. "We are grateful and we would
like
to not rely on it and use that money for special things that need to
happen
rather than use it for paying for overhead."

He said that "Compass Rose money is given unconditionally to allow it to
run
its business," noting that Trinity Church in Manhattan provides all the
expenses for the web site, telecommunications and the Anglican web
portal.
"Not one penny can we pay out of our core money, so we are grateful to
Trinity," he said.

Funded items include employment costs for 17 people, meetings (ACC,
Primates
Lambeth, etc.), office and housing expenses, Anglican World magazine and
other publications.

Not included in the core budget are the expenses for the UN Observer's
office (145,000 pounds sterling), telecommunications (71,000 pounds) and
the
networks (84, 000). These items are funded from outside sources and
fundraising.

For next year, at 1.4 million pounds, "We're paying for a panel of
reference
and listening process, new items for 2006."

In order to meet costs for the upcoming years, Franklin issued some bad
news
to the ACC. "We don't waste your money and it's hard to ask provinces
for 3
or 4 %. Some say they can give us what they can. We've asked for a 10%
increase in 2006 and thereafter a 4%."

He said that "over the last two or three years we have had to fund
things
that we didn't expect would happen. We are dangerously low in reserves
and
dangerously low in resources in staffing."

Reserve funds will cover the costs of the Lambeth Conference in 2008, an
item which has no allotment for the next three years.

Bishop John Paterson, ACC chair, said, "The sum of 100,000 pounds that
we
have been able to put aside will cover the cost of Lambeth conference.
The
Lambeth design group is reasonably confident that the money we have put
aside will be okay. They would be much more comfortable if we could make
the
contribution as in the past."

Paterson added: "Networks certainly are funded on a shoestring basis.
Most
have to find funding our site the core budget. Networks do great work,
but
they do it independently."

Responding to a question about the formula used to determine the
provinces'
contributions, Franklin replied, "It is based on past history it needs
reviewing to see if it is fair. There are probably one or two who think
they
are paying too much. Two provinces are paying 70% and that is too much.
It
relies too heavily on two big provinces that happily pay. There are some
that I ask myself why they have to pay too much. One or two provinces
could
afford to pay more. We drastically need to look at that."

Contributions from The Church of England and the Episcopal Church form
the
70% referred to by Franklin, according to budget statements.

Paterson concurred: "It's time for a more equitable arrangement."

Compass Rose generosity

Compass Rose chairman Albert Gooch of the United States followed the
budget
presentation with an overview of the Society's fundraising activities.

"The Compass Rose Society is an independent organization, a partner
organization with the Anglican Communion," said Gooch, who is past
president
of Kanuga Conference Center in North Carolina. "It's a group of persons,
families, churches, dioceses and chapters who share a commitment to the
worldwide ministry of the Anglican Communion."

Members provide an inaugural gift of $10,000 or the local currency.
"Members
are expected to say prayers daily for the Compass Rose Society and the
Anglican Communion," Gooch explained. "Members are asked to seek new
members. We have 200 members in six nations on three continents and the
numbers are growing."

Compass Rose projects have been launched in Nigeria, Cuba, Spain,
Tanzania,
and Southern Africa. "Between 1999 and 2004, Compass Rose corporately
and
individual through its member donated $4 million dollars to the Anglican
Communion and its various ministries," Gooch said. "Over $1 million went
to
the operating of the budget of the Anglican Communion."

Information about the Compass Rose Society and new memberships is posted
on
the Anglican Communion website.

Resolutions

ACC acted on a series of resolutions ranging from protection of
children,
the drought in Africa and the rights of lay members.

"Problems have come to the surface regarding clergy and church workers
regarding the abuse of children," Fordham from Australia said. "It's not
just an Australian issue. This is an opportunity for exchange of
information
in terms of knowledge and outcome of our study over the years."

ACC approved a resolution noting the "recommendation from the Anglican
Church of Australia that ACC establishes a Safe Ministry Task Force to
promote the physical, emotional and spiritual welfare and safety of all
people, especially children, young people and vulnerable people within
the
member churches of the Anglican Communion; Refers the recommendation and
proposed action plan to the Standing Committee for evaluation and
recommendations on the further action that may be taken by this Council
and
the provinces of the Communion."

ACC member Sylvia Scarf of Wales said that Anglicans are "also working
with
our ecumenical partners in this. This is not something that is confined
to
the Anglican Church."

In what some viewed as a reaction to the inclusion of the primates on
the
ACC, the council approved a resolution calling for specified rights of
the
lay members.

"We are not asking for any changes to be made at the moment, said Dr.
Anthony Fitchett of New Zealand. "We are asking the standing committee
look
at things."

Under the resolution, the Standing Committee would examine circumstance
when
it would be appropriate to vote by orders; clarifies the use of secret
ballots and majorities other than a simple majority; examines means to
persuade primates to send lay people in those instances where a province
sends only one delegate to ACC; considers whether the chair of
vice-chair
shall be one clerical and one lay; provide a meeting of lay members
early in
each ACC gathering.

In other resolutions approved today, ACC:

-- Applauds the initiative talks in 2004 by the African Anglican
Bishop's
Conference to hold a conference of African bishops in Nigeria in order
to
discuss problems faced by dioceses and to find local solution;

-- Notes with concern the ongoing serious drought in many parts of
Africa
and the effect of this on the population of the continent; offers its
prayers to the communities thus affected; and requests all provinces to
consider ways in which aid and support can be offered to these
communities;

-- Gratefully receives the report of the Anglican Indigenous Network
(AIN);
notes the AIN resolutions for its work, contained in the report of the
AIN
gathering at Pala, California, in 2005; and requests the provinces of
the
communion to support those resolutions where appropriate.

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

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