wfn.org | [ACNS] Third Anglican Global South to South Encounter

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

ACNS 4061     |     MIDDLE EAST      |	   31 OCTOBER 2005

The Third Anglican Global South to South Encounter

Red Sea (Egypt), 25-30 October 2005

The Third Anglican South-to-South Encounter has graphically demonstrated
the coming of age of the Church of the Global South. We are poignantly
aware that we must be faithful to God's vision of one, holy, catholic
and apostolic Church. We do not glory in our strengths but in God's
strength. We do not shrink from our responsibility as God's people
because of our weaknesses but we trust God to demonstrate His power
through our weakness. We thank God for moving us forward to serve Him in
such a time as this.

A. Preamble

1. A total of 103 delegates of 20 provinces in the Global South
(comprising Africa, South and South East Asia, West Indies and South
America), representing approximately two-thirds of the Anglican
Communion, met for the 3rd Global South to South Encounter from 25-30
October 2005 at Ain El-Sukhna by the Red Sea in Egypt. The theme of the
Encounter was "One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church: Being A
Faithful Church For Such A Time As This".

2. We deeply appreciated the Archbishop of Canterbury for the time he
spent with us, his listening ear and encouraging words. We took to heart
his insight that the four marks of the Church are not attributes we
possess as our own right, nor goals to attain by human endeavour, but
they are expressed in us as we deeply focus on Jesus Christ, who is the
Source of them all (John 17:17-21).

3. We were really warmed by the welcome that we received here by the
President, the government and the people of Egypt. We valued the great
efforts made by the state security personnel who are making the land of
Egypt a secure and safe place to all her visitors. We were touched by
the warm hospitality of the Diocese of Egypt.

4. We have witnessed in Egypt a wonderful model for warm relations
between Christians and Muslims. We admire the constructive dialogue that
is happening between the two faiths. We appreciated the attendance of
the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Dr Mohammed Said Tantawi, the representative
of Pope Shenouda III and other religious leaders at the State Reception
to launch our Encounter. We were encouraged by their wise contributions.

B. We Gathered

5. We gathered to seek the face of God, to hear His Word afresh and to
be renewed by His Spirit for total obedience to Christ who is Lord of
the Church. That is why the gathering was called an "Encounter" rather
than a conference. The vital question we addressed was: What does it
mean to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church in the midst of all
the challenges facing the world and the Church?

6. The world of the Global South is riddled with the pain of political
conflict, tribal warfare and bloodshed. The moral and ethical
foundations of several of our societies are being shaken. Many of our
nations are beset by problems of poverty, ignorance and sickness,
particularly the HIV and AIDS that threaten millions, especially in
Africa. In addition to that, thousands of people have suffered from
severe drought in Africa, earthquakes in South Asia, and hurricanes in
the Americas - we offer our support and prayers to them.

7. Apart from the world condition, our own Anglican Communion sadly
continues to be weakened by unchecked revisionist teaching and practices
which undermine the divine authority of the Holy Scripture. The Anglican
Communion is severely wounded by the witness of errant principles of
faith and practice which in many parts of our Communion have adversely
affected our efforts to take the Gospel to those in need of God's
redeeming and saving love.

8. Notwithstanding these difficult circumstances, several parts of our
Communion in the Global South are witnessing the transforming power of
the Gospel and the growth of the Church. The urgency of reaching vast
multitudes in our nations for Christ is pressing at our door and the
fields are ready for harvest.

9. Surrounded by these challenges and seeking to discover afresh our
identity we decided to dig deeper into God's Word and into the tradition
of the Church to learn how to be faithful to God's gift and call to be
His one, holy, catholic and apostolic people. We deliberately chose to
meet in Egypt for two reasons:

a. Biblically, Egypt features prominently in the formative period of the
calling of God's people (Exodus 19). Moreover, Egypt was part of the
cradle that bore the entry of the Savior into the world (Hosea 11:1;
Matthew 2:13-15).

b. Meeting by the Red Sea, we could not help but be inspired by the
historic crossing of God's people into the realm where He purposed to
make them a "light to the nations" (Isaiah 42:6). Part of that blessing
was fulfilled when Alexandria became a center of early Christianity,
where church fathers formulated and held on to the Christian faith
through the early centuries.

C. We Discovered Afresh

10. We discovered afresh the depth and richness of our roots in the one,
holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Carefully researched papers were
presented at the Encounter in the context of worship, prayer, Bible
Study and mutual sharing. We recognize the dynamic way in which the four
marks of the Church are inextricably interwoven. The salient truths we
encountered inspired us and provided a basis for knowing what God
requires of us.

The Church is One

11. The Church is called to be one. Our unity is willed by our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself, who prayed that we "all might be one." (John
17:20-21) A great deal of confusion has arisen out of misunderstanding
that prayer and the concept of unity. For centuries, the Church has
found unity in the Person and teaching of Jesus Christ, as recorded in
Scripture. We are one in Him, and that binds us together. The foundation
and expression of our unity is found in Jesus Christ as Saviour and
Lord.

12. While our unity may be expressed in institutional life, our unity is
grounded in our living relationship with the Christ of Scripture. Unity
is ever so much more than sharing institutionally. When we are "in
Christ," we find that we are in fellowship with others who are also in
Him. The fruit of that unity is that we faithfully manifest the life and
love of Christ to a hurting and groaning world (Romans 8:18-22).

13. Christian unity is premised on truth and expressed in love. Both
truth and love compel us to guard the Gospel and stand on the supreme
authority of the whole Word of God. The boundary of family identity ends
within the boundary of the authentic Word of God.

The Church is Holy

14. The Church of Jesus Christ is called to be holy. All Christians are
to participate in the sanctification of their lives through submission,
obedience and cooperation with the Holy Spirit. Through repentance the
Church can regain her rightful position of being holy before God. We
believe concurrently that holiness is imparted to us through the life,
ministry, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ (Heb
10:21-23). He shares His holiness with us and invites us to be conformed
to His likeness.

15. A holy Church is prepared to be a "martyr" Church. Witness unto
death is how the Early Church articulated holiness in its fullest sense
(Acts 22:20; Rev 2:13, 12:11).

The Church is Catholic

16. The Catholic faith is the universal faith that was "once for all"
entrusted to the apostles and handed down subsequently from generation
to generation (Jude 3). Therefore every proposed innovation must be
measured against the plumb line of Scripture and the historic teaching
of the Church.

17. Catholicity carries with it the notion of completeness and
wholeness. Thus in the church catholic "when one part suffers, every
part suffers with it" (1 Cor 12:26). The local church expresses its
catholicity by its devotion to apostolic teaching, its attention to
prayer and the sacrament, its warm and caring fellowship and its growth
through evangelism and mission (Acts 2:42-47).

The Church is Apostolic

18. The Church is apostolic in its doctrine and teaching. The apostolic
interpretation of God's salvation plan effected in Christ Jesus is
binding on the Church. God established the Church on the "foundation of
the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief
cornerstone" (Eph 2:20).

19. The Church is apostolic in its mission and service. "As the Father
has sent Me, so I send you." (John 20:21) In each generation He calls
bishops in apostolic succession (Eph 4:11-12) to lead the Church out
into mission, to teach the truth and to defend the faith. Accountability
to God, to those God places over us and to the flock is an integral part
of church leadership.

D. We Commit

20. As a result of our Encounter, we emerge with a clearer vision of
what the Church is called to be and to do, with a renewed strength to
pursue that vision. Specifically, we made commitments in the following
areas.

The Authority of the Word of God

21. Scripture demands, and Christian history has traditionally held,
that the standard of life, belief, doctrine, and conduct is the Holy
Scripture. To depart from apostolic teaching is to tamper with the
foundation and to undermine the basis of our unity in Christ. We express
full confidence in the supremacy and clarity of Scripture, and pledge
full obedience to the whole counsel of God's Word.

22. We in the Global South endorse the concept of an Anglican Covenant
(rooted in the Windsor Report) and commit ourselves as full partners in
the process of its formulation. We are seeking a Covenant that is rooted
in historic faith and formularies, and that provides a biblical
foundation for our life, ministry and mission as a Communion. It is
envisaged that once the Covenant is approved by the Communion, provinces
that enter into the Covenant shall be mutually accountable, thereby
providing an authentic fellowship within the Communion.

23. Anglicans of the Global South have discovered a vibrant spiritual
life based on Scripture and empowered by the Spirit that is transforming
cultures and communities in many of our provinces. It is to this life
that we seek to be formed and found fully faithful. We reject the
expectation that our lives in Christ should conform to the misguided
theological, cultural and sociological norms associated with sections of
the West.

Mission and Ministry

24. Churches in the Global South commit to pursue networking with one
another to add strength to our mission and ministry. We will continue to
explore appropriate structures to facilitate and support this.

25. Shared theological foundations are crucial to authentic fellowship
and partnership in mission and ministry. In that light, we welcome the
initiative to form the Council of Anglican Provinces of the Americas and
the Caribbean (CAPAC). It is envisaged that CAPAC will not only provide
a foundation on the historic formularies of Anglican faith but also
provide a structure with which member churches can carry out formal
ministry partnerships with confidence.

26. Global South is committed to provide our recognition, energy,
prayers and experience to the Networks in the USA and Canada, the
Convocation of Nigerian Anglicans in the USA, those who make Common
Cause and the Missionary District that is gathering congregations that
circumstances have pressed out of ECUSA. We are heartened by the bold
witness of their people. We are grateful that the Archbishop of
Canterbury publicly recognized the Anglican Communion Network in the USA
and the Anglican Network in Canada as faithful members of the Anglican
Communion.

27. As for the other provinces and dioceses around the world who remain
steadfastly committed to this faith, we look forward to further
opportunities to partner with them in the propagation of the Gospel. We
will also support those orthodox dioceses and congregations which are
under difficult circumstances because of their faithfulness to the Word.
We appreciate the recent action of the Primate of the Southern Cone who
acted to stabilize the volatile situation in Recife, Brazil.

In this regard, we take this opportunity to acknowledge the immense
contribution of the Primate of South East Asia to the development of the
Global South and to the preservation of orthodoxy across the worldwide
Anglican Communion.

Theological Education

28. In order to provide teaching that preserves the faith and fits our
context, it is crucial to update the curricula of our theological
institutions in the Global South to reflect our theological perspective
and mission priorities. We note from the All Africa Bishops Conference
their concern that far too many Western theological education
institutions have become compromised and are no longer suitable for
training leaders for our provinces. We call for the re-alignment of our
priorities in such a way as to hasten the full establishment of adequate
theological education institutions across the Global South so that our
leaders can be appropriately trained and equipped in our own context. We
aim to develop our leaders in biblical and theological training, and
seek to nurture indigenous theologians. We will provide information on
institutions in the Global South, and we will encourage these
institutions to explore ways to provide bursaries and scholarships.

The Current Crisis provoked by North American Intransigence

29. The unscriptural innovations of North American and some western
provinces on issues of human sexuality undermine the basic message of
redemption and the power of the Cross to transform lives. These
departures are a symptom of a deeper problem, which is the diminution of
the authority of Holy Scripture. The leaders of these provinces
disregard the plain teaching of Scripture and reject the traditional
interpretation of tenets in the historical Creeds.

30. This Encounter endorses the perspectives on communion life found in
sections A & B of the Windsor Report, and encourages all Provinces to
comply with the request from the Primates' Communiqué in February 2005
which states:

"We therefore request all provinces to consider whether they are willing
to be committed to the inter-dependent life of the Anglican Communion
understood in the terms set out in these sections of the report."

31. The Windsor Report rightly points out that the path to restoring
order requires that either the innovating provinces/dioceses conform to
historic teaching, or the offending provinces will by their actions be
choosing to walk apart. Paragraph 12 of the Primates Communiqué says:

"Whilst there remains a very real question about whether the North
American churches are willing to accept the same teaching on matters of
sexual morality as is generally accepted elsewhere in the Communion, the
underlying reality of our communion in God the Holy Trinity is obscured,
and the effectiveness of our common mission severely hindered."

32. Regrettably, even at the meeting of the Anglican Consultative
Council (ACC) in Nottingham in 2005, we see no evidence that both ECUSA
and the Anglican Church of Canada are willing to accept the generally
accepted teaching, nor is there evidence that they are willing to turn
back from their innovations.

33. Further, the struggles of the Communion have only been exacerbated
by the lack of concrete progress in the implementation of the
recommendations of the Windsor Report. The slow and inadequate response
of the Panel of Reference has trivialized the solemn charge from the
Primates and has allowed disorder to multiply unnecessarily. We
recognize with regret the growing evidence that the Provinces which have
taken action creating the current crisis in the Communion continue
moving in a direction that will result in their "walking apart." We call
for urgent and serious implementation of the recommendations of the
Windsor Report. Unscriptural and unilateral decisions, especially on
moral issues, tear the fabric of our Communion and require appropriate
discipline at every level to maintain our unity. While the Global South
calls for the errant provinces to be disciplined, we will continue to
pray for all who embrace these erroneous teachings that they will be led
to repentance and restoration.

Spiritual Leadership

34. Our on-going participation in ministry and mission requires godly
and able spiritual leadership at all times. We are encouraged that many
inspirational leaders in our midst bear witness to the Scriptures and
are effectively bringing the Gospel to surrounding cultures. We commit
ourselves to identify the next generation of leaders and will seek to
equip and deploy them wherever they are needed.

35. We need inspirational leaders and accountability structures. These
mechanisms which we are looking into must ensure that leaders are
accountable to God, to those over us in the Lord, to the flock and to
one another in accordance to the Scriptures. This last aspect is in
keeping with the principle of bishops and leaders acting in council. In
this way, leaders become the role models that are so needed for the
flock.

Youth

36. The Global South emphasizes the involvement and development of youth
in the life of the Church. The youth delegates encouraged the whole
gathering by the following collective statement during the Encounter:

"Many youths in the Global South are taking up the challenge of living
in moral purity in the face of the rising influence of immoral values
and practice, and the widening epidemic of HIV and AIDS. Young people
will be ready to give their lives to the ministry of the Church if she
gives them exemplary spiritual leadership and a purpose to live for.
Please pray that we will continue to be faithful as the Church of 'today
and tomorrow'. It is also our heart's cry that the Communion will remain
faithful to the Gospel."

Poverty

37. As the church catholic we share a common concern for the universal
problem of debt and poverty. The inequity that exists between the rich
and the poor widens as vast sums borrowed by previous governments were
not used for the intended purposes. Requiring succeeding generations of
people who never benefited from the loans and resources to repay them
will impose a crushing and likely insurmountable burden. We welcome and
appreciate the international efforts of debt reduction and cancellation,
for example, the steps recently carried out by G8 leaders.

38. A dimension of responsible stewardship and accountability is the
clear call to be financially self-sustaining. We commend the new
initiative for financial self-sufficiency and development being studied
by the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA). This is not only
necessary because of the demands of human dignity; it is the only way to
have sustainable economic stability.

HIV and AIDS

39. A holy Church combines purity and compassion in its witness and
service. The population of the world is under assault by the HIV and
AIDS pandemic, but the people of much of the Global South are hit
particularly hard because of poverty, lifestyle habits, lack of teaching
and the paucity of appropriate medication. Inspired by the significant
success of the Church in Uganda in tackling HIV and AIDS, all our
provinces commit to learn and apply similar intentional programmes which
emphasize abstinence and faithfulness in marriage. We call on
governments to ensure that they are providing adequate medication and
treatment for those infected.

Corruption

40. The holy Church will "show forth fruits that befit repentance" (Matt
3:8). Many of us live in regions that have been deeply wounded by
corruption. Not only do we have a responsibility to live transparent
lives of utmost honesty in the Church, we are called to challenge the
culture in which we live (Micah 6:8). Corruption consumes the soul of
society and must be challenged at all costs. Transparency and
accountability are key elements that we must manifest in bearing witness
to the cultures in which we live.

Violent Conflict

41. Many of us from across the Global South live juxtaposed with violent
conflict, most egregiously manifest in violence against innocents. In
spite of the fact that the conflicts which grip many of our provinces
have resulted in many lives being lost, we are not defeated. We find
hope in the midst of our pain and inspiration from the martyrs who have
shed their blood. Their sacrifice calls us to faithfulness. Their
witness provokes us to pursue holiness. We commit ourselves to grow to
become faithful witnesses who "do not love their lives even unto death"
(Rev 12:11).

E. We Press On

42. We emerge from the Encounter strengthened to uphold the supreme
authority of the Word of God and the doctrinal formularies that have
undergirded the Anglican Communion for over four and a half centuries.
Communion requires alignment with the will of God first and foremost,
which establishes our commonality with one another. Such expressions of
the will of God which Anglicans should hold in common are: one Lord, one
faith, one baptism; Holy Scripture; apostolic teaching and practice; the
historic Creeds of the Christian Church; the Articles of Religion and
the doctrinal tenets as contained in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
Holding truth and grace together by the power of the Holy Spirit, we go
forward as those entrusted "with the faith once delivered" (Jude 3).

43. By the Red Sea, God led us to renew our covenant with Him. We have
committed ourselves to obey Him fully, to love Him wholly, and to serve
Him in the world as a "kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus
19:6). God has also helped us to renew our bonds of fellowship with one
another, that we may "stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man in
the faith of the Gospel" (Phil 1:27).

44. We offer to God this growing and deepening fellowship among the
Global South churches that we might be a servant-body to the larger
Church and to the world. We see ourselves as a unifying body, moving
forward collectively as servants of Christ to do what He is calling us
to do both locally in our provinces and globally as the "scattered
people of God throughout the world" (1 Peter 1:1).

45. Jesus Christ, "that Great Shepherd of the sheep" (Heb 13:20, Micah
5:4), is caring for His flock worldwide, and He is gathering into His
one fold lost sheep from every tribe and nation. We continue to depend
on God's grace to enable us to participate with greater vigour in
Christ's great enterprise of saving love (1 Peter 2:25, John 10:14-16).
We shall press on to glorify the Father in the power of the Spirit until
Christ comes again. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

The Third Anglican Global South to South Encounter

Red Sea, Egypt, 25-30 October 2005

___________________________________________________________________
ACNSlist, published by Anglican Communion News Service, London, is
distributed to more than 8,000 journalists and other readers around
the world.

For subscription INFORMATION please go to:
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/acnslist.html