Canterbury: “The Communion is a gift not a problem”
The Archbishop of Canterbury has used his Advent letter to the Primates of the Anglican Communion and Moderators of the United Churches to reiterate that the “Communion matters” to its members across the world and to the mission of God.
In the letter issued on 1 December, Dr Rowan Williams highlighted how, over the past year, Anglican co–operation and fellowship has provided real support and encouragement to Anglicans undergoing challenges in such countries as Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe.
Referring to his recent visit to the Church of the Province of Central Africa he said, “The experience especially of visiting a Church that felt isolated and exposed in Zimbabwe reinforced powerfully for me the need to stand together with one another. When Archbishop Thabo from Southern Africa announced to the thousands who gathered in Harare for worship that ‘what touches you touches us’, he was giving voice to this.
“This is why the Communion matters – why it matters for a bishop in Jerusalem facing the withdrawal of a residency permit…a congregation in Nigeria facing more interreligious violence, an island in the Pacific facing inundation because of climate change, an urban community in Britain wondering how to respond to rising social disorder as poverty and unemployment increase. The Communion is a gift not a problem to all such people and many more. Only in such a mutually supportive family, glorifying and praising God in Christ together, can we truly make known the one Christ.”
The Archbishop’s letter acknowledged the “numerous tensions” in the Communion, but cautioned Communion members never to say “I have no need of you” to anyone seeking to serve Jesus Christ. He also used the letter to appeal for “more careful and dispassionate discussion” on such issues as the powers of Primates’ Meetings as well calling for “a sustained willingness on the part of all Provinces to understand the different ways in which each local part of the Anglican family organizes its life.”
Dr Williams also commended the Anglican Communion Covenant “as strongly as I can” stressing that it would neither change the structure of the Communion nor give “some sort of absolute power of ‘excommunication’ to some undemocratic or unrepresentative body.”
“It outlines a procedure, such as we urgently need, for attempting reconciliation and for indicating the sorts of consequences that might result from a failure to be fully reconciled,” he said. “It alters no Province’s constitution, as it has no canonical force independent of the life of the Provinces. It does not create some unaccountable and remote new authority but seeks to identify a representative group that might exercise a crucial advisory function.”
He said the fact that the moratoria were being “increasingly ignored” was deepening mistrust “which is bad for our mission together as Anglicans, and alongside other Christians as well. The question remains: if the moratoria are ignored and the Covenant suspected, what are the means by which we maintain some theological coherence as a Communion and some personal respect and understanding as a fellowship of people seeking to serve Christ?”
The Archbishop concluded by looking ahead to next year’s Anglican Consultative Council meeting in New Zealand at which he hoped the following items would be addressed: The Bible in the Life of the Church project, the issue of gender–based violence, the environmental crisis, and “our commitment to evangelism and conversion in a diverse world”.