Reflections on Nottingham
Well, we were not voted out of the Communion.
But a decision made in Nottingham may make
it inevitable that the US and Canadian churches will voluntarily leave.
Here is what happened at the Anglican Con
sultative Council Nottingham meeting:
1. A resolution passed that accepted the voluntary withdrawal of the US and Canadian delegates from official representation until Lambeth 2008.
Since both those delegations had
already withdrawn and the ACC doesn't meet as a whole again until after Lambeth 2008, we haven't been "suspended" from anything.
2. This resolution passed by a razor-thin margin - 30-28 with four abstentions.
This effectively refutes the conservatives' oftrepeated statement that the U.S. and Canadian churches stand alone against all the rest of the Communion. Apparently half the Communion still wants us at the table and the other half committed to listen to us by:
3. Passing unanimously a second resolution that included the call for the Anglican Communion to listen to the experiences of homosexual persons.
This resolution puts back into play the commitment made in the infamous 1998 Lambeth resolution 1.10 to do such listening, a commitment that has been scandalously ignored by conservatives both in the US and elsewhere.
So, this is good news, right?
Not necessarily.
The most troubling decision made in
Nottingham is the decision to amend the ACC constitution to include the 37 Primates as ex officio members, thereby increasing the membership to 115 from 78.
This action, coupled with the voluntarily with
drawal of the US and Canadian delegates, drastically changed the composition and dynamics of the meeting. The ACC is made up of bishops, clergy and lay people from the 38 provinces of the Communion. It is the only international forum in which Anglican laypeople can participate in decision-making. While the amendment included a provision that attempts to ensure balance for clergy and lay members, once the 37 primates--all male--are included, laity representa
tion will no longer be the majority of the Anglican Consultative Council and the voices of women will be further diminished.
The Americans and the Canadians
regularly include female priests and laywomen in their delegations, and usually female bishops as well. With them gone, the participants included only two women priests, no women bishops, and 11 laywomen.
The absence of our delegation and that of
Canada allowed ultra-conservative voices such as that of Nigeria's Primate, Archbishop Peter Akinola, to dominate the meeting and change the ACC's decisionmaking process into a highly charged, highly polarized process.
Worse, the addition of the Primates has tipped
the balance of the ACC toward male archbishops, many of whom have total authoritarian power over their provinces and apparently little understanding of and no respect for the polities of either the US or Canadian churches.
What does this mean for the future?
The constitutional amendment is subject to the primates assenting to the change at their next meeting; approval by two-thirds of the Provinces of the Anglican Communion by resolution of the appropriate constitutional body; and final amendment [if any] and approval by the Standing Committee [of the ACC].
Read that paragraph again, because if the con
servatives have their way, every substantial change any Province in the Communion wants to make will be subject to the same approval process or one very like it. And then try to imagine the ordination of women getting approval by two-thirds of the Provinces in the Communion.
So much depends on what General Convention 2006 decides vis a vis the constitutional amendment and the Windsor Report recommendations. Both should be voted down, because both are steps toward formalizing the Anglican Communion into something it has never been--a worldwide church with a centralized decision-making body.
The Windsor Report recommendations create
what the Rev. Dr. Jane Shaw, theology dean, New College, Oxford, has called a "Holy Spirit-free zone," by calling for "an impossibly high sense of accountability" requiring "so much agreement that change can't occur."
The Report calls for a hierarchical teaching
authority which would allow some provinces to veto actions in other parts of the Communion. The constitutional amendment adding the primates to the ACC is a significant move toward making that body such an authority.
This is exactly what US conservatives have
been asking for since the ordination of women. Indeed, much of the rhetoric used in the wake of Minneapolis 2003 is almost identical to that used in the wake of Minneapolis 1976. The biggest change is that their targets are now lesbians and gays. This has been enor
mously useful to them in enlisting the aid of conservatives in countries where being homosexual can lead to arrest, torture and death.
And in case you have any doubt who is next
on their agenda if this unholy alliance succeeds in getting the American and Canadian churches to back down from their acts of radical inclusivity, look no further than England.
According to a letter published in the July 1
Church of England Newspaper, 17 "traditionalist' bishops have signed a letter giving warning that any moves to ordain women as bishops would be "deeply divisive" and that ordaining women as bishops could threaten the church's "fragile unity."
Nice strategy, huh? Orchestrate an uproar by
screaming threats of schism over gay unions and ordinations, and then claim the unity of the church is too fragile to bear any other change involving anyone other than male clergy.
It doesn't require a crystal ball to know that
more undermining of female clergy will be in the works as the conservatives feel more emboldened. And laypeople? All you have to do is look at the amazing clericalism of the American Anglican Council to see their disdain for laypeople.
The US and Canadian churches aren't the only
ones with dogs in this fight. All Anglicans who cherish the Via Media genius of the Anglican Communion should be alarmed.
If remaining in the Anglican Communion
means being part of a conservative, hierarchical clerical-and-male-dominated Anglican Communion with a Curia to keep us all in line, I say, let us walk apart, holding our differences in love.
In so doing, we will be faithful to Jesus' call,
and very Anglican to boot.
Nominations Wanted!
At each General Convention, the EWC presents two awards. These are:
The JOSEPH AWARD, given, in the spirit of Mary's spouse, to a man who has been a faithful companion to women on our journey in faith. The recipient of this award is a man who defies conventional wisdom and cultural standards in order to confront prejudice and obey the spirit of the God of incarnate love, liberation, justice, reconciliation and peace.
The MAGDALENE AWARD, given to lift up and celebrate a ministry that would not ordinarily be well known. The recipient of this award is a woman whose unflagging dedication and leadership transcends cultural standards, strengthens and builds up the disciples of Christ, provides for them out of her own resources, and witnesses to the power of the resurrection.
Do you know any person or persons who fulfill these ideals? Send your nominations for either the Magdalene Award or the Joseph Award--or both--to any member of the EWC Board. Contact information may be found on the inside front cover of Ruach.