This document is signed by the following nine persons:
Most Rev Dr Peter J. Akinola (Nigeria)
Most Rev Dr Bernard Amos Malango (Central Africa)
Most Rev Dr John Chew Hiang Chea (South East Asia)
Most Rev Ian Ernest (Indian Ocean)
Most Rev Dr Mouneer Hanna Anis (Jerusalem and the Middle East)
Most Rev Emmanuel Musaba Kolini (Rwanda)
Most Rev Justice Ofei Akrofi (West Africa)
Most Rev Henry Luke Orombi (Uganda)
Most Rev Dr Fidèle Dirokpa (Congo)
The full text can be found here.
Communiqué of the Global South Primates, Shanghai, October 30, 2007
1. The visit of the Global South Primates to the People’s Republic of China has given us an opportunity to meet and reflect on the present situation facing the Anglican Communion and what we have to do to move forward while remaining grounded in the Word of God and preserving its catholicity and apostolicity.
2. We are saddened that all the decisions and recommendations made at the several meetings of the Primates since 2003 and the Windsor Report have not been duly respected. In view of the current crisis, it is imperative to call for faithfulness to the Word and the tradition we have received, and move to build up a momentum for the transformation of our common life. We see the crisis as a call to an Anglican renewal of faith as part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church, and to move forward in mission and evangelism within the wider church and the world.
3. Since the colonial past, no consolidation of the essence of communion has been made on the part of the Mother Church and of the churches in the West. What is at stake is the very nature of Anglicanism – not just about sexuality but also about the nature of Christ, the truth of the Gospel and the authority of the Bible. We reject the religion of accommodation and cultural conformity that offers neither transforming power nor eternal hope.
4. There is today an urge to reject subservience and call for mutual responsibility. The Instruments of Communion should be given the needed attention so that they can really enable mutual respect and faithfulness to what holds us together – the faith once delivered to the saints. Our call is to work towards the equipping of God’s people so that we can be a faithful people of God and for God.
5. We are experiencing a sense of belonging in the spirit of communion in the Global South. This strengthens the structures that facilitate cooperation, conversation and accountability.
6. It is clear to us that the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church (TEC) has not given an unequivocal response to the requests of the Primates at Dar es Salaam. Therefore we affirm the conclusion that the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA) has reached in the communiqué of their meeting in Mauritius in October 2007 that “a change in direction from our current trajectory is urgently needed” because “we want unity but not unity at any expense”.
7. In view of our desire to move forward:
7.1 We call for an urgent meeting of the Primates to receive and conclude the draft Anglican Covenant and to determine how the Communion should move forward;
7.2 We urge that the proposed Lambeth Conference 2008 be postponed to a later date when bishops of all the provinces in the Communion can participate in a spirit of true collegiality and unity in the faith;
7.3 We request the Steering Committee to start preparations for the 4th Encounter of the Global South in 2008;
7.4 We receive with thanks the report of the Economic Empowerment Consultation in Accra, Ghana, in September 2007, and encourage the Task Force to continue to develop programmes to help our churches to be increasingly self-supporting;
7.5 We commend the work of the Theological Education and Formation Task Force, especially the drafting of the Anglican Catechism in Outline (ACIO), and urge our dioceses to make it available to all strata of leadership in preparation for its formal adoption in the first quarter of 2008;
7.6 We call upon bishops of the Global South and the Anglican Communion to write to their churches to explain the current situation and ask them to pray for the Communion at this crucial time which would lead to reformation and transformation.
8. We give thanks to God for the life and ministry of the following Primates who will be retiring in 2007 and we pray that they will have a blessed retirement:
“I… urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” (Jude 3)
These nine joining in a doleful chorus of “Come, Thou Long Expected Schism!”
🙁
* Noting that +Malango is retiring—so it soon could be 9 minus 1?
* “Most Rev Dr Mouneer Hanna Anis (Jerusalem and the Middle East)”: particularly sad. TEC (et al, among *thinking* Anglicans) need to decide how we’re goint to direct our traditional Good Friday “for the Church in Jerusalem” collection: I don’t want it going to him.
Lord have mercy!
Their point 3 shows they have never really understood Anglicanism, at least not the Anglicanism that made a stand against slavery or distinguishes between might and right. It is thus not a surprise to see the “accommodating” churches adopting the Millenium Development Goals earlier, or being more practical in how to slow the spread of AIDS e.g. respect women and stop stigmatising AIDS victims. Superstitions and prejudices make souls fearful to confess they are infected and thus it is not properly managed. Particularly where a confession could lead to their losing access to jobs or an education (e.g. university degree)… Read more »
WOW!
Cancel (OK, “postpone”) Lambeth & have (another) emergency Primates Meeting (those always do so much good) so the primates can immediately impose an Anglican Covenant on the rest of the Communion!
Talk about who is ignoring the Windsor Report!
So 9 of the 30 some Primates are up in arms.
If you add the Southern Cone (mysteriously not there) you get 10.
Almost all of the Primates who signed come from one continent, but don’t represent all of it.
The deafening silence of the other Primates, except for the support from Scotland, Ireland and (as I recall) Brazil is telling.
Yes, JOhn R, I agree: why on earth can’t we hear some progressive voices loud and clear from some of the sane primates? They are far too timid, just hoping the crisis will melt away without them needing to stand up for justice.
JCF —
Bishop Anis is actually Bishop of Egypt — the (new) bishop of Jerusalem is Suheil Dawani (a Palestinian) — Bishop Anis was consecrated by Bishop White of Milwaukee a few years ago & only recently has become primate — I don’t understand their system (the previous primate was Bishop Handford of Cyprus and the Gulf).
No disrespect meant to +Anis, but I’m curious as to his CV – http://www.dioceseofegypt.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=40
Was he only ordained a priest in 1999 and then ordained bishop in 2000, and is now a Primate? And are his only theological qualifications really:
“1999 – Present
Presently studying for Preliminary Theological Certificate by Correspondence at Moore Theological College, Sydney, Australia. Subjects completed and passed are: Introduction to the Bible; New Testament 1; Old Testament 1; Doctrine 1; Romans; Doctrine 3.”
I’m happy to be corrected.
I think only 9 signed because only 10 went (see original story).
I’m fairly sure John R is right, you can add Southern Cone; probably West Indies too, and Kenya and Tanzania I would guess; maybe Myanmar also; and the new Southern African Primate I wouldn’t be surprised; and one or two from the sub-continent off past form; and others too I have no doubt.
They seem to think that the Primates’ meeting has a level of authority that it has never been given. In fact, even Lambeth is credited with authority that it does not have. As I recall, it is the Anglican Consultative Council that has at least some authority in the Communion.
When will someone tell the Primates that they do not run the church alone?
“We are saddened that all the decisions and recommendations made at the several meetings of the Primates since 2003 and the Windsor Report have not been duly respected.”
Well, they were respected, but not necessarily agreed with (though perhaps rather too much agreed with in terms of what TEC agreed to in its pausing).
Mark / John…… we have heard liberal Primates – have you not noticed the powerful squeaks from Wales and Scotland? Anyway, yes, just 9 have signed this document….but what do they represent? Say they do split from the AC because the ABC insists on invitig those who “tore the fabric of the Communion” and flagrantly promote disobedience to Lambeth 1.10 as having some sort of integrity? What would that mean for the AC? Say the AC has 50m people (not counting the CofE as 26m, given that is a joke, but being more accurate and giving the CofE its actual… Read more »
NP: I should have guessed you would have tried to impress us all with how large a majority there is for nastiness, therefore we should all be nasty. Seems very strange logic to me: you could justify all sorts of ideological unpleasantness by that. Have you heard of Athanasius contra mundum? If it weren’t for him, the Church would be Arian now. I think the point is that Gene Robinson IS a bishop. If he goes to Lambeth, he will not be the first gay bishop to have done so: there have always been English bishops who have been gay,… Read more »
Mark says “NP: I should have guessed you would have tried to impress us all with how large a majority there is for nastiness…” Oh Mark…..at least when drdanfee plays the victim, he does it with some sophistication. Nobody is being “nasty” to you or anyone else, Mark…..the problem is that most people in the AC believe it is wrong to condone behaviour which is “incompatible with scripture”….radical eh? Anyway, while many people, including Rowan the Procrastinator, have failed for decades to make a compelling theological case and most AC bishops still believe certain behaviour is “incompatible with scripture”….the CofE… Read more »
“…the problem is that most people in the AC believe it is wrong to condone behaviour which is “incompatible with scripture”….radical eh?”
Once again, until someone polls the laity and clergy of these provinces, we don’t know that. What we know is that the BISHOPS of these provinces “believe it is wrong…etc.”
Since–unlike in the TEC practice that NP has previously abhorred–these bishops are not elected, we have no idea if they really represent the thoughts of their population as a whole.
Then ‘Scripture’ is wrong, and revision is needed.
The “Global South” which have claimed to be 20 Primates (though never ever able to gather more than 18 Primates, or “representatives”, on even ”neutral” occasions, such as the “Global South” meetings on Economic development and education) after years of yellings since Kuala Lumpur meeting in 1994 finally – in the new China suffocating from pollution, of all places – muster 9 Signatories to their agenda of a new radical Calvinist communion cum discipline covenant (= the power to expel), that is 25%…
Pathetic.
Pat – quite happy to have a vote of all Anglican priests or all Anglican people….. like many others, I am sick of the AC being disrupted by a tiny minority who reject certain scriptures
So, we disagree with these nine persons in a fundamental way. I was brought up in a church where I was allowed to think, to explore, to believe or not, to question, to doubt, to seek God in my own way. It is that church in which I desire to continue to worship and serve. If I wanted to be in a church where everyone had to sign on to certain unchangeable beliefs or suffer the consequences, I have any number of other choices than the Episcopal Churches in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, U.S.A. where I have… Read more »
“Presently studying for Preliminary Theological Certificate by Correspondence at Moore Theological College” Itself a cause for concern in some quarters! “Have you heard of Athanasius contra mundum? If it weren’t for him, the Church would be Arian now.” Yes, he has, it’s been pointed out several times, by many people. Others have also pointed out that, by this argument, Islam with its growth must be true, or Roman Catholicism, having always had greater numbers, must have been true at the Reformation and must be true now, and on and on. No response, though. It is so hard, though, not to… Read more »
(I realize this has been said before, even by me—but perhaps this will be a different angle.) Benedict XVI thinks he is a bishop, primate, metropolitan, and patriarch in Christ’s one holy catholic and apostolic Church: and no one this side of Ian Paisley seriously doubts it. The Pope doesn’t have to make an argument to show the validity of his position, other than the argument that his predecessors have been there at the “threshold of the Apostles” since the time of the apostles themselves. We could say something similar of Patriarch Bartholomeos, and of Fr. Glenn and Archimandrite Theodosius… Read more »
Just a passing thought about NP and other con evo believers who constantly throw census numbers into posts as if that meant something triumphant for their arguments. (And yes, the dilemma for such realignment con evo believers is to sufficiently demonstrate to the rest of us, that their commitment to the traditional negatives can delicately hold back in any number of daily life domains, from having to get nasty to make its way among us.) Anyhooo. I am reminded of Jesus parable about the kingdom of heaven – you know, leaven in the loaf. TEC has never been all that… Read more »
I think it is too bad that Anis (Jerusalem and Middle East) signed this. Some of us have been looking at more charitable giving to the Middle East in view of many African Anglicans saying they didn’t want our money. Personally I am going to revisit this, especially the Good Friday offering. Maybe we need to think more locally.
NP: I’m sorry, but I think that the tradition of Christian homophobia, which in Britain meant the execution of people for being gay, until that was finally altered first to life imprisonment and then prison with hard labour in the 19th c, was nasty. It was also supported by the C of E, for which the church should now repent.
“Personally I am going to revisit this”
Please don’t. The poor are still poor, the destitute still destitute, those who suffer from war still suffer from war, orphans are still orphaned. Witholding money from the work of the Church, no matter how you feel about Her leaders, is never a good thing.
“Pat – quite happy to have a vote of all Anglican priests or all Anglican people….. like many others, I am sick of the AC being disrupted by a tiny minority who reject certain scriptures”
And would you accept the result if it came out in a way you don’t like?
Clearly no–since you object to the vote that put an openly gay man in the cathedra of New Hampshire.
“Posted by 4May1535+ at Thursday, 8 November 2007 at 2:12pm GMT”
That’s a *powerfully logical* post, 4May.
Though I still believe that Rome is in schism from Canterbury! [They excommunicated us, after all: not the other way ’round]
Thanks, JCF, and I take your point–if our actions weren’t schismatic, but rather (as we claimed) the just reasssertion of the historical independence of _Ecclesia Anglicana_, then the schism that’s actually here starts on the Roman side. But in any practical terms, there’s surely enough blood and guilt to go around. I’m fond of, or hopeful for, that Eliot passage about these men and those who opposed them acepting the constitution of silence….
NP: there is a rumour going round TA that your church is Holy Trinity Brompton. Could you confirm or deny this before making any more postings?
Because if it is the case that the church you are continually holding up as a paragon to be imitated everywhere is the church attended by the most exclusive social set in London, then I think all these innocent Americans need to be told.
Mark – your question was answered months ago…
Have you been or are you just spouting prejudice?
Now, say we had a church which was exclusively made up of aristocrats which happened to agree with most of the AC that Lambeth 1.10 was correct …. would that suddenly make what the CofE bishops have consistently said is “incompatible with scripture” holy and good?
Mark – yuo’re looking for a smokescreen.
The issue is the authority of scripture.
You do not get the AC to drop Lambeth 1.10 by saying, “Look, they are posh!”
By the way, Mark, I would completely agree with you that the CofE should repent of past sins, including support for the old legislaton you mention….and I am not in principle against SORS etc (as long as it does not stop free speech or religious freedom) I vote Labour… does that me a bit nicer? I say these things because I do not want you constructing some right-wing enemy to argue with but I want you to realise that for most of us in the AC, the issue is the authority of scripture……maybe that is why your brilliant old lecturer… Read more »
NP: I think you should stop posting all these aggressive comments telling everyone they just have to be like Holy Trinity Brompton. That church is full because all the young Arabellas and Camillas need to find their Olivers and Edwards somewhere, not because of hard-line doctrine. Come off the high horse: your church is nothing like typical. It is famous as a high society meeting place. I mentioned innocently earlier that Con Evo churches tended to minister exclusively to the wealthy, and you were strangely silent. Now I understand why. If you continue making all these postings belittling everyone else’s… Read more »
Prevarication, NP!
Fr Mark is a relatively new poster and doubtless has better things to do that to trawl the archives reading your corpus epistularum. Tell him, unless you are ashamed to admit that you really go to a pentecostal tabernacle in Hoxton.
I really don’t get why NP is so reluctant to talk about his church. After all, if you’re proud of what your church does, wouldn’t you want everyone to know about it? Wouldn’t you want to invite people to speak to your leadership team, to see you in action in order to learn? This is bizarre! But here are the relevant posts from the archives: http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/002585.html Hey, NP, how about letting us know what “booming” London evo parish you attend? Posted by: Kurt on Tuesday, 4 September 2007 at 2:53pm BST Kurt – Mynster and others worked that out long… Read more »
Mark – you display some prejudice and snobbery…..as I have said, nobody is going to drop Lambeth 1.10 because a few of the people for it may be posh…..some churches in Kensington are liberal with rich members – so what? Erika – I do not speak for any church, not being clergy or employed by any church. Just a chap talking to you here. So, that is why I do not claim to speak for any church……and also because people (see above) will want to avoid the issues of what the bible says and what the AC bishops have said… Read more »
NP knows that if we knew the actual makeup of his parish congregation, they would immediately be discredited for being rich. Wealth does not in and of itself discredit anybody, however. NP, the thing is, if a person is smug in his wealth, scorns the poor, seeks Scriptural justification for behaviours anyone can see are not Christian, and such like, then when that person supports a position, everyone else is going to wonder if that position is something Christians should support. I mean, if they can’t live the Gospel themselves, how can they be trusted to know what’s God’s Truth?… Read more »
It’s not just the question of NP’s church, Erika. It’s also the question of unsubstantiated assertions regarding his circumstances or past that are thrown into posts to justify statements he has made or to stop the individual against whom he is posting dead in their tracks. I experienced this a few weeks when I commented on a perceived nostalgia on NP’s part for the South African Apartheid regime. His response – that he and his family had been active opponents of Apartheid in South Africa – naturally brought this line of thought to an abrupt halt. On reflection, however, it… Read more »
I once walked innocently into a “hand-waving” Church at Shepherd’s Bush (somewhere west of Kensington) and was appalled at the usual neo-evo antics, not to mentioned shock at discovering this sort of thing existed in the UK. All what was missing was the overhead projector with the bouncing ball. My vote is for Shepherd’s Bush. Oh, and not all of us rich, snobby, low church & traditional types are anti-LGBT. (Really nothing in common with what is called in the U.S. “charismatic” churches) Let’s (at least most of us, NP notwithstanding) be careful now! Some of us are Trevors looking… Read more »
I know, choirboyfromhell, I’m sorry if I sounded anti-rich: it’s not that at all, just that NP can’t see how his experience of a church with such a narrow tranche of London society in it is not a good platform for smugly criticising everyone else’s way of being church, which he seems to do non-stop. God loves Tristans too (and so do a lot of the rest of us…)
No offense taken whatsoever Fr. Mark. I now agree that your hunch may indeed be correct. Look at the first names of the Vicar (Rector?) and his wife at HTB. The question that needs to be asked (and continually gets ignored) is why do the NP types focus so much disproportionate emphasis on a tiny part of scripture to condemn others? It is un-Christian being as it underlines a great sickness to control others and live in fear. It also lays claim that one already knows all about the Creator, and His (It’s?) motives. That’s scary. Those types here in… Read more »
I just took a look at the HBT website and I’m confused. Maybe it’s a difference between US and UK usage, but what exactly is meant by an “informal service”?–the term used to describe all of HTB’s Sunday services?
I have difficulty imagining anything that could possibly fit into Anglican tradition or liturgy as being “informal”.
“The question that needs to be asked (and continually gets ignored) is why do the NP types focus so much disproportionate emphasis on a tiny part of scripture to condemn others?” I suppose a possible answer would be that if you genuinely believe that people need to live certain lifestyles to be loved by God and to be “saved”, and that no being saved means literal damnation (as someone posted here not long ago), then you would feel compelled to keep pointing their awful sin out to them so they can repent and be saved too. In practice, of course,… Read more »
Ford says “NP, the thing is, if a person is smug in his wealth, scorns the poor, seeks Scriptural justification for behaviours anyone can see are not Christian, and such like, then when that person supports a position, everyone else is going to wonder if that position is something Christians should support.” -very judgmental, Ford….but we will both me judged by the same Lord…..so, please worry about yourself, not judging me or congregations you admit you know little of. You are, of course, right….as St James says, our actions shows our faith. Lapin – I can easily pour doubt on… Read more »
Pat: I fear that “informal” could well mean “not using the authorised Anglican liturgical book” here. Erika: I think that for people like NP, it is not actually anything theological at all that motivates them, but something pyschological. I don’t know enough about psychology, but there are obviously quite a few men around in churches who are deeply challenged at some primal level by the existence of other men who are gay (they rarely seem to direct the same level of hatred at lesbians, oddly). There appears to be a need to define oneself by being part of the majority… Read more »
“I have difficulty imagining anything that could possibly fit into Anglican tradition or liturgy as being “informal”.-Pat O’Neill
That’s because they aren’t Anglican. A charismatic church I happened on once outside of Jacksonville, FL, didn’t use the the Hymnal 1983, and ignored most of the rubrics of the BCP. I didn’t make it to the communion (walked out in disgust, God knows I tried) to see if they used the words of consecration.
This church left TEC two years ago, it was obvious that they never wanted to have anything to do with us, as it showed in their liturgy.
Fr Mark “Erika: I think that for people like NP, it is not actually anything theological at all that motivates them, but something pyschological. “ Quite. Different psychologies are attracted to different theologies. That doesn’t mean that the theologies don’t have some extent of rationality and reasonableness about them if examined in their best possible light. Every so often it is possible to meet someone who is caring, kind and genuine but who has been convinced by this kind of belief system. Not everyone is as completely rigid and without any kind of empathy as some posters here. The ones… Read more »
Mark and choirboy:
Thanks for the clarification; I suspected as much.
If you’re not going to follow Anglican tradition as to service and liturgy, what’s the point of calling yourself Anglican? Other than the possible societal benefits, as in “all the best people are Anglicans”?
Far be it for me, of all people, to leap to the defence of HTB or any other quasi non-liturgical parish, but . . . The comment that what goes on there is outwith the limits of Anglicanism was a comment oft applied to most of what would now be considered standard Anglican liturgical practice, from coloured vestments to weekly (or even daily) eucharist to the use of altar candles and unleavened bread to the simple act of elevating the host. Indeed, the NPs of the day tried very hard to have the state outlaw such innovative “departures” from the… Read more »
I personally believe there is much or interest for a psychiatrist to be found in both Church and Sect.
Much more than elsewhere.
But the present un-pleasentness seems to me to be something else. A question not of w h a t is right, but of w h o is right.
Who gets to ask the questions, who gives the answers, who gets to decide, and so on…
It’s shift of Paradigm.
And Patriarchy (and even more Hierarchy) is loosing.
Pat: you could have hit the nail on the head there… not just the “best” but the “most powerful/influential” perhaps.
Hi Lois, it’s great to see you posting, I’ve been praying about you and hoping all is well. I loved your comment “…the great gift we had to give Christendom: A safe place for people who aren’t sure, who doubt, who even challenge God.” A beautiful prophetic gift that oozes through many parts of the bible. I love Abraham’s debate with God about whether or not God is really just and how little/much it would take to save Sodom and Gomorrah. Similarly, I love the confessions from many of the prophets about whether or not God really wanted them to… Read more »