Rev. George Conger
July 29, 2008
The Anglican Communion has foundered and is ready to sink beneath the waves, bishops attending the 14th Lambeth Conference tell the IRD.
Charges of dishonesty and ignorance were exchanged during the first week of the conference, a gathering of the bishops of the Anglican Communion in Canterbury, England, that occurs every ten years. Attempts by the leader of the 80-million member church, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams, to steer the church clear of the shoals of schism appears to have failed.
The Most Rev. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, address the press at Lambeth. (Photo by George Conger) |
While a week remains for the bishops to put aside their differences and come to a common mind on the issues dividing the church, there is little indication that either side is ready to sacrifice its principles for the sake of political expediency.
Liberal American bishops have urged the church to give it an opportunity to explain its evolving stance on homosexuality, while conservatives have called for the cessation the consecration of gay clergy and a halt to blessings of same sex unions or gay marriages.
“I’d like to expect a miracle,” said Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina, a leader of the evangelical alliance at Lambeth, but said he feared the prospects for the church holding together were slight.
“Humanely speaking there is little hope for even a peaceful separation,” Bishop Venables noted. A split had already taken place, he said, adding that the best course was to work out the terms of the “divorce.”
Considered one of the four “instruments of unity” that bind the members of the 38 churches of the Anglican Communion, the decisions of the Lambeth Conference do not have the force of law, but for 140 years have set an authoritative moral voice for the church.
The 2008 conference, however, has been mired in controversy for over a year before its start. Dr. Williams issued invitations to all of the communion’s 880 bishops, with a few notable exceptions. The Episcopal Church’s homosexual bishop, Gene Robinson was asked not to attend. as was the Bishop of Harare, Dr. Nolbert Kunonga, who was banned from the conference due to his ties to the regime of Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe.
The American bishops of the African-overseen Anglican jurisdictions in the United States, such as the Rwandan-led Anglican Mission in the Americas and the Nigerian-led Convocation of Anglicans in North America were also denied an invitation as their consecrations as bishops were considered valid but irregular.
Conservative leaders told Dr. Williams that if the bishops who consecrated Gene Robinson were invited, they would stay away. The Archbishop of Canterbury invited the dozen or so American and Canadian bishops, which prompted approximately 250 bishops to boycott the gathering.
All of the bishops of the Communion’s two largest churches, Nigerian and Uganda, declined to attend. Only five of the third largest church, Kenya, attended,, as did only one bishop from the million member Church of Rwanda. Conference organizers have not released a list of bishops attending the gathering alternatively citing security and privacy concerns. However the boycott by evangelicals means that bishops from the liberal-leaning Episcopal Church of the United States comprise 1 in 5 of the bishops attending the conference, while world-wide Americans account for only 1 in 40 Anglicans.
The 20-day gathering opened on July 16 with three days of retreat led by Dr. Williams on the campus of the University of Kent in Canterbury. The retreat concluded with an opening Eucharist service at Canterbury Cathedral.
Loosed from the bounds of the retreat format, discord was soon apparent as three primates, the archbishops or leaders of the national churches, refused to receive the Eucharist with the Americans present, as did an unknown number of other bishops.
In addition to adding the retreat to the opening of the meeting, Dr. Williams also changed the design of the gathering. In a break from 140 years of practice, the bishops meet in small groups, as opposed to business sessions, to discuss theological, political and social issues.
The bishops have been divided into groups of eight for Bible studies, and then 40 meet in what are calledindaba groups—a Zulu word used to describe African “town hall” type meetings. Bishops then attend “self-select” training sessions in the afternoon and attend plenary meetings led by speakers in the evenings. All the sessions, save for a few evening meetings, are closed to the media and visitors.
The indaba group format has fostered a great deal of frustration, as the design appears to many to frustrate serious conversation about the issues dividing the church. While bishops designated as official spokesmen for the conference have lauded the gatherings for allowing the bishops to get to know one another, three dozen bishops questioned by the IRD during the course of the first week all expressed degrees of doubt as to the wisdom of the indaba strategy.
South African Archbishop Thabo Makgoba—one of the conference organizers—conceded the division of the bishops into groups of 40 to discuss specific issues in the space of two hours did not appear to allow for enough time for a full airing of views. “Mathematically, it won’t make a lot of sense,” he said. However, “the whole conference is an indaba.”
“Indaba starts with walk from your room,” and continues with all of the events of the day. “It is part and parcel of the whole conversation,” he explained. Bishop Nathan Baxter of Central Pennsylvania lauded the small group encounters saying that “bishops listening together” had set a respectful tone for the gathering, and “says a lot about the climate” at Lambeth.
Americans have been “well received” he said. While “not everyone agrees” with each other, we have been able to “talk to one another, not about one another,” Bishop Baxter said.
Central Florida Bishop John W. Howe wrote his clergy “there seems to be an incipient revolt stirring among us. Many of the Africans are saying, ‘This isn’t indaba at all! First of all, we are not a village, and we don’t know each other. And secondly, we are not attempting to solve a problem; we are talking in small groups about minor issues of little consequence’.”
The Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu noted, “If indaba is such a great idea, why is Africa in such a mess?”
On the second business day, frustration at the heavy handed methods employed by conference organizers sparked a revolt by the Sudanese bishops. On July 22, the Archbishop of the Sudan made unscheduled visit to the conference press room, releasing a statement calling for the Episcopal Church of the United States to repent, and to cease “with immediate effect” its advocacy of gay bishops and blessings.
Dr. Daniel Deng, Archbishop of Juba and Primate of the Sudan, also issued a call for American church’s gay bishop, Gene Robinson to step aside to save the Communion.
If [Gene Robinson] were a real Christian he would resign” Dr. Deng said.
Dr. Deng added that a meeting of over 150 bishops from Africa, Asia and South America, held during a free period backed the Sudanese demands. The calls for dialogue were premature, the Sudanese archbishop said. “I have nothing to talk” to Gene Robinson about, Dr. Deng said. “First he must confess and then is the time to talk” about the divisions within the Communion, the Sudanese leader said.
Financial tensions are also weighing upon the conference, as organizers conceded there were over $2 million in debt. Over 40 percent of the bishops attending Lambeth are on “scholarship” from the Conference. With a quarter of the bishops absent and fundraising at a standstill, the financial picture appears grim, one insider told IRD.
In his presidential address, Dr. Williams said that the communion could address its problems through “consent, not coercion,” and through open dialogue.
He acknowledged the Communion was “in the middle of one of the most severe challenges” but noted that “whatever the popular perception, the options before us are not irreparable schism or forced assimilation.”
Dr. Williams argued that the way forward for the Communion amidst its divisions was through “council and covenant.” He offered a “vision of an Anglicanism whose diversity is limited not by centralized control but by consent—consent based on a serious common assessment of the implications of local change.”
Williams downplayed suggestions the indaba process was designed to avoid action, saying that while “quite a few people have said that the new ways we’re suggesting of doing our business are an attempt to avoid tough decisions and have the effect of replacing substance with process. To such people, I’d simply say, ‘How effective have the old methods really been?’”
Past resolutions were more honored in the breach, he said. “If you look at the resolutions that have been passed since 1867, you’ll find many of them, on really important subjects, have never been acted on,” he said.
“We need renewal, and this is the moment for it,” Dr. Williams said, charging the bishops to “help shape fresh, more honest and more constructive ways of being a conference—and being a Communion.”
The plans for renewing the conference will be laid out to the bishops by a committee formed earlier this year by Dr. Williams known as the Windsor Continuation Group, which is charged with taking forward the reforms suggested by past pan-Anglican study commissions. The bishops will discuss the issues of homosexuality and church order in a series of closed plenary meetings in the second week of the conference.
However, Dr. Williams’ attempts to forge a common mind appear doomed to failure. At the first hearing of the Windsor Continuation Group, American liberal bishops defended the actions of their church in permitting gay bishops and blessings, and denied there was any crisis in the Episcopal Church.
Archbishop Drexel Gomez of Nassau, the Primate of the Church of the Province of the West Indies, responded that the American bishops were either in “denial” or “being economical with the truth” in their description of the Episcopal Church.
Washington Bishop John Chane responded the next day, telling the American bishops Archbishop Gomez’ comments were “dishonest.”
Whether Dr. Williams’ hopes for unity can survive the discord is unclear. However, both left and right have said the preservation of the status quo is not enough. For both sides the issue is a matter of conscience: Biblical fidelity versus social justice. With the conference cracking up all around him, Dr. Williams’ abilities to preserve the integrity of the Anglican Communion will be sorely tested in the coming week.
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