by Randall Fairey
This month an important body in the worldwide Anglican Communion meets in Jamaica. The Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) is one of four "Instruments of Communion," taking its place alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, and since 1979, the Primates Meeting. Unlike the other instruments, the laity participate in the ACC.
Organized for a first meeting in Kenya in 1971, the Council draws members (one bishop, one clergy, and one lay) from each of the 38 Provinces of the Communion. Members attend for a maximum of three meetings or six years, whichever is longer; or as in our case, CoGS may alter it. The Council has had 13 previous meetings including one in London, Ontario in 1979.
The representatives from the Province of Canada are Bishop Sue Moxley of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the Rev. Stephen Andrews, Prolocutor (Chair) of General Synod and Bishop-elect of the Diocese of Algoma, and Suzanne Lawson whom many of you will remember was the energetic facilitator at our last Diocesan Synod. Suzanne leads the Planning and Agenda Team of CoGS.
The Council is not a legislative body per se but it is important for substantive discussions between the Provinces. It is predominantly advisory, and was intended to improve communication since Bishops meet at Lambeth only once every ten years. Some of you know there have been large Anglican Congresses; the last one was in Toronto in 1963, so the ACC was certainly needed.
There is a Secretariat based at Saint Andrew's House in London and the articulate Secretary-General of the Anglican Communion, Canon Kenneth Kearon, contributed much to our last General Synod. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the President of the Council and the current chairman is the Bishop of Auckland, the Rt. Rev. John Paterson. Another important function of the ACC is to represent Anglicanism at ecumenical and inter-faith meetings.
This meeting promises to be more important than ever. Firstly there is the ongoing consideration of an Anglican Covenant with the Covenant Continuation Group presenting the feedback to the St. Andrew's Draft from the Provinces of the Communion. As I have mentioned previously, CoGS and our Canadian representatives have contributed much to the drafting of a possible Covenant.
Certainly another important topic is the consideration of the initiatives from the Common Cause Partnership whose desire is to establish a conservative or "orthodox" Province, the Anglican Church of North America. The Anglican Consultative Council cannot prevent the establishment of such an organization, however its agreement would be necessary to recognize the new Province as a part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. In my opinion this will not happen although the conservative members from Provinces in Africa and the Global South will doubtless support its recognition.
Related to this, the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth and at the recent Primates meeting in Alexandria, urged “gracious restraint” and moratoria have been put in place to avoid any further movement to blessing same sex unions or civil marriages, for the ordination of a Bishop in an openly gay relationship, and the cross-border interference from Primates who purport to give a home to disaffected Anglicans. This also applies in Canada; however, several dioceses have given notice of their intention to move ahead. Our Diocese will meet at Synod to decide our recommendations to Bishop John. Therefore the outcome of expected discussions at the Anglican Consultative Council will be critical and very timely to our deliberations.
There are, I believe, high expectations for some definitive actions for the Communion coming out of the Jamaica meeting. But the issues are complex and Anglicans impatient for change, on both sides of the conservative — liberal divide, may be disappointed that yet again the Communion decides to discuss, reason and study Scripture further. That is the Anglican way. (Scripture interpreted in the light of reason and tradition) But it doesn't necessarily lead to dramatic outcomes or exciting press. Please hold the members, especially our Canadian delegates, in your prayers of support and for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
