Resolutions approved, May 11-12, 2009
May 12, 2009 – 11:06 am by Marites N. SisonACC and the Primates' Meeting The ACC: a) welcomes the presence of the Primatial members of the Standing Committee as full members of the ACC, and b) asks the primates to include an equal number of non-primatial members of the Joint Standing Committee as non-voting participants in the Primates' Meeting. ON CONFLICT The ACC, a. Remembers people in places of conflict and injustice everywhere especially in * Pakistan, where blasphemy laws allow persecution under law of Christians, and encourage religious extremism * Philippines, where killings and disappearances of church workers and others working in civil society have occurred * Sri Lanka, where a humanitarian crisis threatens hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians on the north eastern coastal belt of Sri Lanka * Sudan, where its peoples desperately seek an end to conflict, suffering and death * Zimbabwe, where previous government policies have created intolerable conditions that have destroyed the infrastructure of the country * Other places, including Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, ...
Last full day
May 12, 2009 – 10:40 am by Marites N. SisonIt will be a very full last day for the Anglican Consultative Council. As I write, the ACC delegates are in so-called "Discernment Groups," reflecting on what messages to take back to their member provinces. It will be interesting to hear the summations, which will be discussed at an open plenary at 9:45 a.m. (Jamaica time). The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will have a press conference at 1 p.m. - with only a handful of media present, the rest having left after decisions on hot-button issues (need I say which?) were done. At 2 or 2:30 p.m. the ACC delegates depart for the closing eucharist at historic Spanish Town, which, according to the Jamaican newspaper, Jamaica Gleaner, pretty much tells the story of this beautiful island nation. The Eucharist will be held at St. Catherine's Cathedral, also known as the the St. Catherine Parish church, is described as the one of the ...
Presidential address
May 11, 2009 – 11:06 pm by Marites N. SisonStory to come... Kingston, Jamaica The 14th Anglican Consultative Council has not “given evidence of any belief” that Anglicans worldwide “have no future together,” said the Archbishop of Canterbury, even as he warned that it would be “inevitable” that the Anglican Communion could turn into a “much more dispersed association” or federation if not all member churches sign on to the proposed covenant. “We have not in this meeting, given evidence of any belief that we have no future together,” said Archbishop Rowan Williams in his presidential address, delivered on the eve of the last day of the ACC meeting. “The question is of course what that future will look like.” Archbishop Williams said that Anglican provinces are “a bit reluctant” to engage the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant in greater detail because it “does underline for us that the possibility of division is there, the possibility at least of certain kinds of division.” He ...
6th Mark of Mission
May 11, 2009 – 5:38 pm by Marites N. SisonStory come: The request from the Anglican Church of Canada and the 2009 Mutual Responsibility and Mission consultation in Costa Rica to add a sixth Mark of Mission relating to peace, conflict transformation and reconciliation, has been endorsed by the Anglican Consultative Council. It was approved after considerable debate on whether there was a a need to add a sixth mark or whether the issues are already covered in the other marks of mission. Full story will appear on the Anglican Journal Web site, www.anglicanjournal.com
Where are the women?
May 11, 2009 – 3:43 pm by Marites N. SisonThe following were elected as new members of the Joint Standing Committee to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC): Rev. Ian Douglas, The Episcopal Church Tony Fitchett, Diocese of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia Dato Stanley Isaacs, Church of the Province of Southeast Asia Bishop Azad Marshall, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East So much for the reminder to ACC delegates to take into account not just regional diversity, balance representation between the three orders of laity, clergy, and bishops, but also gender. All of the new members are men. Representation across theological lines was, however, achieved, evenly. Mr. Douglas and Mr. Fitchett are known to espouse liberal views, while Mr. Isaacs and Bishop Marshall, have been expressing the positions of the so-called Global South, particularly on the issue of human sexuality.
Canadian nominee to the JSC
May 11, 2009 – 10:27 am by Marites N. SisonThe diocesan bishop of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Sue Moxley, who is the Anglican Church of Canada's bishop delegate to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), has been nominated as a member of the Joint Standing Committee (JSC) of the ACC. A powerful body, the JSC, is where a lot of the buck stops. Within the context of the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant, the "small working group" to be appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to “consider and consult with the provinces” on Section 4 of the Ridley-Cambridge draft, “and its possible revision," will report its findings to it. It will be up to the JSC then to spell out the next steps, according to Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion. The other nominees are: Canon Mwita Akiri (Anglican Church of Tanzania). Helen Biggin (Church in Wales), Juanildo Albuquerque Burity (Igreja Episcopal Anglicana de Brazil), Rev. Ian Douglas (The ...
Lost opportunity
May 11, 2009 – 10:09 am by Marites N. SisonAnglican Consultative Council (ACC) delegates on Sunday spent a day of engaging with local Anglicans from the diocese of Jamaica and Cayman Islands. Such "mission encounters" were not open to the media, which was too bad, because it would have given our Anglican readers a chance to read stories other than the debate over human sexuality. More importantly, it would have offered them a glimpse of the joys and challenges faced by the local churches here. ACC delegates will be sharing their experiences in their Bible study and discernment groups today, and they will be joined by their local hosts. These sharing of experiences is, again, closed to the media. We will only be allowed in for the last half hour of their discussions, when they converge for a plenary.
New ACC chair
May 8, 2009 – 10:23 pm by Marites N. SisonBishop James Tenga Tenga, of the diocese of Southern Malawi, Church of the Province of Central Africa, is the new chair of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC). Bishop Tenga Tenga was elected chair during a vote cast by ACC delegates May 8. He achieved the required number of votes – 33 – at the "third stage of voting," said Bishop John Paterson, who ends his term as ACC chair when the council ends its meeting on May 13. Bishop Tenga Tenga has been a member of the ACC and the Joint Standing Committee of Primates and the ACC since 2002. He has been a member of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations since 2005. Bishop Tenga Tenga was a member of the Design Group of the 2008 Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England. He was former chair of the Malawi Council of Churches. Full story to appear later at the Anglican Journal Web site, www.anglicanjournal.com ...
‘Fourth moratorium’ rejected
May 8, 2009 – 2:54 pm by Marites N. SisonKingston, Jamaica The 14th Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) by a tight vote on May 8 rejected a move to include a “fourth moratorium” on issues related to divisions over human sexuality. It would have called for a "cessation of litigation” among member churches on the Anglican Communion involved in disputes over property. The ACC, however, affirmed the recommendations of the Windsor Continuation Group (WCG), which included not just a moratoria on the blessing of same-sex unions, the ordination of persons living in same-sex unions, and cross-provincial interventions, but also “relational consequences” for those who breach them. Full coverage to follow later this afternoon…
