Please wake me up from this nightmare

Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity Faith and Order Communiqué

Posted On : December 8, 2009

The Commission has been established by the Lambeth Conference, the Primates' Meeting, and the Anglican Consultative Council. It builds on previous work done by the Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission, the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations, and the Windsor Continuation Group. It reports to the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion.

In addition to outlining areas of longer-term work, the Commission committed itself to five immediate tasks:

1.to undertake a reflection on the Instruments of Communion and relationships among them;

2.to make a study of the definition and recognition of 'Anglican Churches' and develop guidelines for bishops in the Communion;

3.to provide supporting material to assist in promoting the Anglican Covenant;

4.to draft proposals for guided processes of 'reception' (how developments and agreements are evaluated, and how appropriate insights are brought into the life of the churches);

5.to consider the question of 'transitivity' (how ecumenical agreements in one region or Province may apply in others).

These tasks, which will be taken forward by working groups consulting electronically between meetings, aim to strengthen the unity, faith and order of the Communion.

An Episcopal election in Los Angeles, which remains to be confirmed or rejected by The Episcopal Church, took place during the meeting and was discussed by the Commission. It noted the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury that 'the bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold'. The Commission expressed the fervent hope that 'gracious restraint' would be exercised by The Episcopal Church in this instance.

The Commission also greatly valued an afternoon spent with the Archbishop of Canterbury, during which he shared his own vision for the work of the Commission and his hope that it might act creatively in addressing vital issues for the Church and the world.

Canterbury Cathedral sustained the Commission throughout the meeting through its ministry of prayer and hospitality.

Participants:

The Most Revd Bernard Ntahoturi, Primate of Burundi and Chair of Commission
The Rt Revd Dr Georges Titre Ande, Congo
The Ven. Professor Dapo Asaju, Nigeria
The Revd Canon Professor Paul Avis, England
The Rt Revd Philip D Baji, Tanzania
The Revd Canon Dr John Gibaut, World Council of Churches
The Rt Revd Howard Gregory, West Indies
The Revd Dr Katherine Grieb, Episcopal Church (USA)
The Revd Canon Clement Janda, Sudan
The Revd Sarah Rowland Jones, Southern Africa
The Revd Dr Edison Muhindo Kalengyo, Uganda
The Rt Revd Victoria Matthews, Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
The Revd Canon Dr Charlotte Methuen, England
The Revd Dr Simon Oliver, Wales/England
The Rt Revd Professor Stephen Pickard, Australia
Dr Andrew Pierce, Ireland
The Revd Canon Dr Michael Nai Chiu Poon, South East Asia
The Revd Dr Jeremiah Guen Seok Yang, Korea
The Rt Revd Tito Zavala, Bishop of Chile, Southern Cone
The Revd Joanna Udal, the Archbishop of Canterbury's Secretary for Anglican Communion Affairs
The Revd Canon Dr Alyson Barnett-Cowan,
Director for Unity, Faith and Order
Mr Neil Vigers, of the Anglican Communion Office.

Mandate of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order

The Standing Commission shall have responsibility:

*to promote the deepening of Communion between the Churches of the Anglican Communion, and between those Churches and the other Churches and traditions of the Christian oikumene

*to advise the Provinces and the Instruments of Communion on all questions of ecumenical engagement, proposals for national, regional or international ecumenical agreement or schemes of co-operation and unity, as well as on questions touching Anglican Faith and Order

*to review developments in the areas of faith, order or unity in the Anglican Communion and among ecumenical partners, and to give advice to the Churches of the Anglican Communion or to the Instruments of Communion upon them, with the intention to promote common understanding, consistency, and convergence both in Anglican Communion affairs, and in ecumenical engagement

*to assist any Province with the assessment of new proposals in the areas of Unity, Faith and Order as requested.

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When the creation of this Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity Faith and Order was announced, I groaned because it had all the earmarkings of the Congregation of Faith in the Roman Church. It is living up to that idea.

The powers-that-be seem to confuse unity with uniformity. As with the PROPOSED DRAFT Anglican Covenant, the overarching drive is to push constituent members of the Anglican Communion into conforming with one set of values that do not necessarily reflect those of all members. Here, then, one smells that push with point number 2 which speaks of creating guidelines for bishops. How can Canterbury's vision of episcope override that as expressed in the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church and the ordinal of the Book of Common Prayer or any other province for that matter? Again, it smacks of uniformity.

This IASCUFO (rearrange the letters, insert a 'N' and you get 'SNAFU') also writes as though the PROPOSED DRAFT Anglican Covenant is a reality. Say it enough times and it will become truth. Certainly some folks out there have latched onto the covenant as reality despite it not having yet gone to the JSC of the ACC (who will meet right in around here to discuss the provincial responses to Section IV of the Ridley Cambridge draft... TEC's was not at all approving) which will then send out proposals for the provinces to accept. And what happens if a province does not sign onto the covenant (so totally un-Anglican)? What happens if just over the majority sign onto it? What happens if only two provinces sign onto it?

I am in a combative enough mood to ignore the pleas for 'gracious restraint' in approving the election of the Rev'd Canon Mary Glasspool. Already her personhood, her very being is being objectified. Many have posted the Rt Rev'd Barbara Harris' quote on selection/election so I do not need to repost it... just to say that TEC has exercised gracious restraint by not meddling in the internal affairs of other provinces the way Canterbury seems to be meddling in ours. It makes me most cranky.

Emissions like this chip away more and more at what we have understood to be the classical Anglican ethos... living in the tension of ambiguity, loving the questions and diversity, including a broad spectrum of understanding the gospel and living it out, not demanding total conformity, operating out of a balance of scripture, tradition (as a living, breathing, moving entity, not the granite stuff handed down by dead people)and our reason, that is how we live and breathe and move and have our being in God.

We are in big trouble.