Voices of individual primates may be difficult to hear in these next few days of the Dublin meeting. Except one might be able to track down the voice of a primate not bound into the collective silence of the meeting prior to whatever final communique it makes. Via Titus One Nine we can hear the voice of ++Mouneer Anis, or at least read a transcript of his recent address to a conference in North America.
Brief posting for a day or two, and delay in posting comments as I am involved dawn till dusk in a training course on 'Leading Your Church Into Growth.'
For word on the Primates' Meeting, several sites offer news, including our own Anglican Taonga whose latest Primates' Meeting report suggests as few as seven primates may not be attending as a protest. Other primates are not attending for reasons of illness and crisis in their home areas through natural disaster etc.
14 comments:
Fr. Colin Coward has a fine essay on the Primates’ Meeting which gives a different kind of viewpoint:
http://changingattitude-england.blogspot.com/2011/01/on-not-being-present-at-primates.html
Kurt Hill
Brooklyn, NY
Yes Peter, more alternate universe. Bishop Anis projecting his wants and needs of conciliar authority backward in time unto Lambeth Conferences and Primates Meetings (the history of which is not obscured by the clouds of time since the first meeting was held in 1979) where it never existed and was vigorously opposed.
He wants to be in charge. He wants the Primates to be in charge.
I do not want the Primates to be in charge.
RE: "our own Anglican Taonga whose latest Primates' Meeting report suggests as few as seven primates may not be attending as a protest. Other primates are not attending for reasons of illness and crisis in their home areas through natural disaster etc. . . ."
Indeed. In fact, the well known moderate institutionalist Primate of Rwanda has "provincial matters" to attend to, and the well known moderate institutionalist Gafcon Primate of Kenya has deeply important "diary commitments" as does the Church of North India. The Tanzanian Primate is not attending -- according to the interesting release from the ACO -- for "personal reasons" -- and it matters not that two months ago, he signed the Oxford Statement -- along with so many other well known moderate institutionalist Primates -- asserting that he would not attend the Primates Meeting.
In fact, there were so many scheduling issues and provincial problems and personal reasons and reasons of health that 15 Primates are not attending the meeting which at one time was known as "the Primates Meeting." Toss out three of those as moderates, and you're left with 12 traditional Primates who were unable to quite squeeze in the once every two years meeting into their schedule.
Far more interesting than the 12 is the attempt by the ACO to somehow disguise [how could one possibly do that?] the shattering failure of the ABC to assemble the Primates. Desperate times, I suppose, call for desperate measures. But *looking desperate* is just embarrassing.
Sarah
Hi Kurt,
That is a fine essay!
Hi David,
I liked ++Mouneer's address for his restatement of the importance of Scripture in the life of the Communion.
Hi Sarah
That is a very helpful analysis: thank you!
I'm afraid I think Fr Colin Coward's essay ignores the history of the previous 4-5 years of the Communion. Here is what I cross-posted at his site:
"I'd suggest that what hurts even more than others not being present, is when they do turn up, believe their concerns have been raised and listened to, promises are made regarding taking action, and then they are betrayed. That is the story of the last 2 Primates' meetings. Please don't accuse others of hurtful behaviour, when they are avoiding a repeat of even worse behaviour happening to them."
Hi Andrew,
The Coward essay is a fine one in that it makes a crucial point concerning all human relationships: get to know one another rather than throw stones at each other from a distance.
As you rightly point out, it is not a perfect essay for this occasion, as it misses important dimensions of the situation such as the craqy history of the past few Primates' Meetings.
The bottom line, Sarah, is that these are the 7 provinces which are “officially” upset with TEC; (others may grumble but still keep communion):
The Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean; The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & The Middle East; The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion; The Church of the Province of Uganda; Church of the Province of South East Asia; Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America; The Church of the Province of West Africa.
As I noted, perhaps in fifty or seventy-five years they will have undergone a transformation in attitudes. Until then, the Anglican Communion will keep a light on for them, and warm seats (however empty now) by the fireplace.
“I'd suggest that what hurts even more than others not being present, is when they do turn up, believe their concerns have been raised and listened to, promises are made regarding taking action, and then they are betrayed.”—Andrew Reid
It works both ways, you know, Andrew. Many of us in TEC and ACofC feel the same way about such meetings, yet we attend anyway.
Kurt Hill
In snowy Brooklyn, NY
"I liked ++Mouneer's address for his restatement of the importance of Scripture in the life of the Communion" - Peter Carrell -
Well, Peter, that's no real suprise to those ofus who know your stance on the 'sola scriptura' platform. However, like your correspondent Sarah Hey, you have to understand that the world moves on - together with the need of a new hermeneutic. I know your own connection with the N.Z. end of this new hermeneutical process, but you are only one person - like myself - in this argument, and fortunately for the world-wide Communion, there are other points of view that will be heard in Dublin. Let's all be patient and wait for the outcome.
p.s. was it not Mouneer Anis who fled a special meeting of Primates in another conflict situation regarding TEC and the A.C.of C.?
He had to be somewhere else in a hurry, if I remember rightly. In his recent American speech he was addressing a meeting of the ACNA faithful - not even a part of the Anglicsn Communion
Hi Ron,
I think you will find that the Mere Anglicanism conference which ++Mouneer addressed was not an ACNA exclusive event.
Thanks Kurt for exercising your fingers in the cold!
You say: “As I noted, perhaps in fifty or seventy-five years they will have undergone a transformation in attitudes. Until then, the Anglican Communion will keep a light on for them, and warm seats (however empty now) by the fireplace.”
I do not know whether you have immediate relationships with those from the parts of the (perhaps still) AC you list, but your first sentence is an absolute howler - and to be frank, exactly the staggering hubris that ‘they’ see through. ‘They’ have absolutely no desire to ‘catch up’ with present western “attitudes” - not now, not ever.
Hence, re my previous post on another thread, about “song-sheets” and who wants to “subscribe” to the label of AC: it is again staggering hubris to assume that ‘you’ (will) embody “the Anglican Communion” - in 25 years time, let alone 75.
So lastly, we really do need a bit more transparency and honesty about what constitutes our present crisis, its causes versus symptoms, and therefore, what might just be befuddlement versus real actions needed.
Peter
I am sure that amongst the many blogger plugins, widgets, and gadgets there will be one that rates the hubris-content of a comment. Please can you install it so that we can focus on the humble, honest, true, transparent, unbefuddled comments.
Alison
It probably costs money, Alison! I only access the free ones. :)
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