not too much

On 24 September 2006, the Most Revd Njongonkulu Ndungane Archbishop of Cape Town and Primate of the Anglican Church of the Province of Southern Africa, made a statement in response to the Communiqué issued by the Kigali conference of 'Global South' Primates of the Anglican Communion, making it clear that not all members of that august body agree with or endorse the communiqué. Indeed, its clear that those who issued the communiqué were deliberately untruthful in implying that all the attending provinces agreed to it.

Especially valuable in Archbishop Ndungane's statement is his insistence on patience, on quiet waiting on God which, I suggest, is just what we need as an antidote to all-too-frequent and ill-informed dogmatic assertion that one group's point of view is right and another's must be always wrong.

Also very important is Archbishop Ndungane's warning that the Primates should not disenfranchise their bishops, clergy and laity. That is, it seems to me, they must accept that not all of the people within their respective provinces share the same views as themselves. Arrogance should not be the mark of episcopal primacy.

In July 2006 the Archbishop had written to the Primates of the Anglican Communion calling on them to uphold the 'broad rich heartlands of our Anglican heritage.' He argued that this must be 'the territory on which we debate our future.' adding that 'it is not something to be fought out at the limits of conservatism or liberalism, as if they were the only possibilities before us.'

In the 24 September statement, worth quoting at length, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane said:

I wish to offer this clarification of the position of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, in light of the potentially misleading impression that our Province has endorsed the Communiqué issued at the end of the meeting. Whereas Canon Livingstone Ngewu and I were present in Kigali, neither of us were made aware even of the possibility of a communiqué in the name of the Primates of the Global South, prior to its release.

While I may well concur with some sections of the text, there are others which are certainly not consonant with the position of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, as articulated only earlier this month by our Synod of Bishops and our Provincial Synod. This is particularly the case in relation to Section 10

As a general point, I want to comment that whereas I fully endorse the rationale for a body such as the Global South, which can help us address some of the power imbalances between North and South that exist within the Church and more generally, I am surprised that we allow our agenda to be so dominated and driven by an inordinate influence from the United States. This flies in the face of the experience of those of us who are steeped in black and post-colonial theology, the theology of liberation, and black consciousness. It is hard to understand why we continue to act in response to the North to such a great extent, rather than making use of our freedom to concentrate our energies on the priorities of our own people and Provinces.

That said, there is no doubt that the tensions within the Anglican Communion, arising from actions within North America, raise serious and problematic concerns for our future. Yet I am deeply disturbed by the tenor of our approach, as reflected in this communiqué. To me, at least, it appears in places that there is a hidden agenda, to which some of us are not privy. For example, I am unable to understand why there seems to be a deliberate intention to undermine the due processes of the Anglican Communion and the integrity of the Instruments of Unity, while at the same time we commit ourselves to upholding Anglican identity, of which these, as they have continued to evolve over the years in response to changing needs, are an intrinsic part. Thus, for example, recent meetings of the Primates, in which the Global South played a very full part, requested various actions from the Archbishop of Canterbury, which he has been assiduous in pursuing; such as setting up the Lambeth Commission, the Panel of Reference, and now the Covenant Design Group. Yet there seems to be an urgency to obtain particular outcomes in advance, pre-empting the proper outworking of the bodies for which we called.

Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. As Peter writes in his second letter, 'Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.' We do not want the best of Anglicanism to be cast aside, and so to perish! And to allow the due processes of these bodies, and the Instruments of Unity, to be followed through will take such a short time in relation to the life of God's Church over two millennia.
[. . . ]
I am also more than a little wary of calling into question the election processes of another Province in the way the Communiqué suggests, in relation to the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church. This introduces a completely new dimension into our relationships within the Communion, the reciprocal implications of which we have not considered. I would feel more confident if we addressed this question as a part of the more comprehensive reassessment of the nature of the Communion for our times, which is underway not least through the work of the Covenant Design Group.

An added concern for me is the apparent marginalisation of laity, clergy and bishops in the debate within the Global South. I was particularly glad that circumstances allowed me fully to consult both my fellow bishops, and our Provincial Synod, immediately in advance of the Kigali meeting. For a fundamental and indispensable element of our Anglican identity is that we are both episcopally led and synodically governed. I long for a consultative process that fully engages the whole Body of Christ, recognising that 'to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good' (1 Cor 12:7). Primates do not have sole monopoly on wisdom and knowledge at this crucial time, nor indeed at any other!
[. . .]
To my brother Primates of the Global South and CAPA, I therefore offer a plea from the heart. Let us hold fast, in word and deed, to the true marks with which we believe the Lord has graced and gifted us as Anglicans--yes, our rootedness in Scripture as our primary touchstone, but also in our Tradition and our use of Reason. The Windsor Report has done us an invaluable service in beginning to address how we understand and recognise these and what they mean for us today, and the Archbishop of Canterbury has offered further vital insights in his reflections 'The Challenge and Hope of Being an Anglican Today.' I have offered my own thoughts in 'Heartlands of Anglicanism' and I am sure there is more to be said. But I am also sure that if we fail to carry forward the 'three-fold strands' not just of Scripture, Tradition and Reason, but also of what Archbishop Rowan has so eloquently described as 'reformed commitment to the absolute priority of the Bible for deciding doctrine, a catholic loyalty to the sacraments and the threefold ministry of bishops, priests and deacons, and a habit of cultural sensitivity and intellectual flexibility that does not seek to close down unexpected questions too quickly'--that if we fail to carry forward these, then we certainly relinquish our ability to claim that we stand authentically within Anglicanism.

In the book of the Prophet Isaiah, we read that 'those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not be faint.' We want the Anglican Communion to rise up, renewed and strengthened, on eagles' wings. It is for us to wait upon the Lord. We do not have a God who is slow to act. We can have confidence to let him lead our Church forward, through the ways he has so often done in the past. In our concerns for the Anglican Communion which we love, we do not have to be precipitate and risk losing much of what it is we wish to preserve and enhance.

And so I also offer a call to my brother Primates, that we step back from the brink at which the Kigali Communiqué appears to place us. It is certainly the case that we need changes within the life, and structures, and processes of the Anglican Communion. Yet part of the strength of our heritage is that intrinsic to our life, structures and processes is a considerable flexibility and openness to change that has allowed us to evolve--creating and amending Instruments of Unity, for example (and I am thinking here particularly of the ACC) in response to God's calling to be faithful in our mission and ministry to his people and his world. We are now in need of such evolution, to preserve the very best of the heart of Anglicanism--and working in conformity with this essence of Anglicanism will most effectively preserve that 'best' which has been God's continuing gift to us over the centuries.

Two weeks before our meeting in Kigali, the Synod of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa issued a statement which spoke of the gift of tolerance and grace in the face of the pains of divisions among ourselves with which we have had to deal in our past. The breadth of current divisions also find expression within our Province. Yet we remain convinced that what unites us far outweighs what divides us, and that we must therefore both choose and strive, with deep sacrificial love, for the Anglican Communion to remain united.

Our God surely is a God of surprises. As one of my predecessors as Archbishop of Cape Town said, 'God still works his purposes out, in spite of the confusions of our minds.'
May that be so! Amen!

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1. Section 10 of the Communiqué said:

10. We are, however, greatly encouraged by the continued faithfulness of the Network Dioceses and all of the other congregations and communities of faithful Anglicans in North America. In addition, we commend the members of the Anglican Network in Canada for their commitment to historic, biblical faith and practice. We value their courage and consistent witness. We are also pleased by the emergence of a wider circle of 'Windsor Dioceses' and urge all of them to walk more closely together and deliberately work towards the unity that Christ enjoins. We are aware that a growing number of congregations are receiving oversight from dioceses in the Global South and in recent days we have received requests to provide Alternative Primatial Oversight for a number of dioceses. This is an unprecedented situation in our Communion that has not been helped by the slow response from the Panel of Reference. After a great deal of prayer and deliberation, and in order to support these faithful Anglican dioceses and parishes, we have come to agreement on the following actions:
a. We have asked the Global South Steering Committee to meet with the leadership of the dioceses requesting Alternative Primatial Oversight, in consultation with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Network and the 'Windsor Dioceses', to investigate their appeal in greater detail and to develop a proposal identifying the ways by which the requested Primatial oversight can be adequately provided.
b. At the next meeting of the Primates in February 2007 some of us will not be able to recognize Katharine Jefferts Schori as a Primate at the table with us. Others will be in impaired communion with her as a representative of The Episcopal Church. Since she cannot represent those dioceses and congregations who are abiding by the teaching of the Communion we propose that another bishop, chosen by these dioceses, be present at the meeting so that we might listen to their voices during our deliberations.
c. We are convinced that the time has now come to take initial steps towards the formation of what will be recognized as a separate ecclesiastical structure of the Anglican Communion in the USA. We have asked the Global South Steering Committee to develop such a proposal in consultation with the appropriate instruments of unity of the Communion. We understand the serious implications of this determination. We believe that we would be failing in our apostolic witness if we do not make this provision for those who hold firmly to a commitment to historic Anglican faith.

The Church Times said in its Editorial:

Taking the road from Kigali
The Communiqué issued by the Primates of the Global South, who met last week in Kigali, refers, before it goes on to deal with the Anglican Communion, to the genocide in Rwanda 12 years ago. The Primates might have treated the massacres as a warning of the extremes of intolerance and prejudice. Instead, the communiqué uses the language of natural disaster: "the genocide that tragically engulfed this nation and even its churches". It locates the evil as an outside force: "the utter depravity and inhumanity to which we are all subject outside of the transforming grace of God". And it shifts some of the culpability for this "fate" elsewhere: "During this time, Rwanda was abandoned to its fate by the world." The lesson they choose to draw? "That faith in Jesus Christ must be an active, whole-hearted faith if we are to stand against the evil and violence that threaten to consume our world."

This is not a statement to which one could object. Nevertheless, a determination to "stand against evil" is not a normal starting point for discussions about the better working of the Church Catholic. It helps to explain the Primates' antagonistic stance towards the leadership of the Episcopal Church in the United States, though this is cloaked as a willingness to respond to those inside the US who have asked for outside assistance and oversight. But, however explicable, the decision to set up a parallel organisation in an existing province - unbidden - is a schismatic act; for what is a "separate ecclesiastical structure" but a Church?

The Kigali Primates speak of proceeding "in consultation with the instruments of unity in the Communion". This is a perverse idea in the circumstances. None of those instruments - the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates' Meeting, the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Lambeth Conference - could countenance such a move. It is possible that the Global South Primates believe the US Episcopal leadership to be so discredited that the rest of the Communion will allow a new organisation to take its place as the official Anglican body there. It is more likely that they are not particularly interested in seeking permission. The document The Road to Lambeth, endorsed by the Primates of the Global South, hopes that its road ahead "may pass through Lambeth, our historical mother. But above all it must be the road of the Cross."

The Kigali documents talk of coming of age. When this happens in a family, it signifies that the days of compulsion are past. If certain Primates wish for schism, little can be done to prevent them. Nor can they be denied the family name. The word "Anglican" is not a copyrighted brand. The C of E is used to living alongside other Anglican Churches, all of them small, and, according to the English Church Census, mostly shrinking. Both parties in any international schism will lay claim to the continued use of the name, and thus risk missing the more important part of the Churches' title. In this context, "Anglican" is nothing; "Communion" is all.