From Miss Pamela Bird
Sir, — I am probably the only person still living who attended all the
meetings before and during the constitution of the Anglican Consultative
Council.
I was present at the Anglican Congress in 1963 in Toronto. I was secretary
to the Archbishop of Algoma, and was invited to attend the Congress as
secretary to Bishop Ralph Dean, the Programme Convenor. When he was appointed
Anglican Executive Officer in succession to Bishop Stephen Bayne in 1964, I
joined him in his London office in January 1965. I remained there as
administrative secretary through two Lambeth Conferences, and the first three
meetings of the Anglican Consultative Council.
The Anglican Congress brought together representatives of the (then) 18
provinces comprising the Anglican Communion. From it arose the great concept of
Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ (MRI). Bishop
Bayne’s work as the first Anglican Executive Officer had made it clear that
something nimbler and more representative of Anglicans generally than the
Lambeth Conferences was needed to advise, support, and extend his work.
As part of the preparations made by our office for the 1968 Lambeth
Conference, Bishop Dean and his aide Canon Ernest Jackson (also from Canada)
drew up the terms of reference for an Anglican Consultative Council that would
include men and women, clergy and laity, as well as bishops, but which, for
reasons of finance and ease of more frequent meetings, would be limited in
number. Larger provinces would have three members, and, depending on size,
others would send two or one.
As a result of the preparations, the 1968 Lambeth Conference, in Resolution
69, proposed the establishment of the Anglican Consultative Council. “Approval
[italics mine] shall be by a two-thirds majority of the member Churches of the
Anglican Communion, and shall be signified to the Secretary of the Lambeth
Consultative Body not later than 31st October, 1969.”
By that date, 17 of the 20 member Churches had informed the secretary of the
approval of their General Synod or National Governing Body. Resolution 69
therefore came into effect.
Very shortly after, the secretary received approval of the resolution from
the three remaining Churches. In April 1969, Bishop Dean was succeeded by
Bishop John Howe, the third Anglican Executive Officer, and it was he who was
charged with the task of implementing Resolution 69.
At the first meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in February 1971,
in Limuru, Kenya, he became the first Secretary General to the Council. It met
again in Dublin in 1973, and again in Trinidad in 1976, and has been meeting
every two or three years since.
It cannot, any more than Lambeth Conferences or Meetings of Primates,
legislate for the Anglican Communion, but, because it consists of bishops,
clergy and laity, duly appointed by their national synods, it does represent
the whole weight of the whole body of Anglicanism. It cannot impinge on the
autonomy of individual provinces any more than can Lambeth Conferences or
Primates’ Meetings, but can make strong recommendations for their consideration.
This preliminary history is necessary to make it clear that the Anglican
Consultative Council is not a “club” from which members may be expelled. It is
meant more as a forum in which just such issues as sex orientation may be
discussed, and a way forward may be discovered and developed.
There have been issues before this latest where solutions have been sought
in love and understanding. The ordination of women was one such at its very
first meeting, as was also grave misgiving in South Africa over some World
Council actions and Anglican participation. The Communion didn’t fall apart,
nor suggest that some of its members should withdraw. I should like to stress
the word “members”, not “delegates”.
It beggars belief that the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal
Church in the United States — two of the three prime architects of gatherings
and fellowship in the Communion —should be invited to depart or should
themselves consider it; or that others of the original member provinces should
concur.
The 1978 Lambeth Conference was more cautious than the 1968 one, and
back-pedalled furiously. What had been spawned? Bishops seemingly were afraid
for their “authority”, and were precipitate in suggesting that the Primates
should meet as often, though not necessarily at the same time, as the ACC. This
was an episcopal decision only: it did not come from the General Synods or
national governing bodies of the provinces, though presumably they were
expected to finance the meetings.
Some of the provinces whose archbishops are so vociferous on a certain issue
were not in existence when the Anglican Consultative Council was proposed and
constituted, largely at the instigation of Canadians in the Anglican Church;
the Canadian Church has been foremost in its support of Communion affairs, of
MRI, especially in Africa, and the dismantling of apartheid.
Lambeth Conferences of bishops are attended by invitation of the Archbishop
of Canterbury; Primates call themselves together; but the Anglican Consultative
Council has a constitution, and exists by the will of the whole of Anglicanism.
It must not be conned into thinking that other gatherings can ask its members
to withdraw.
Having been so deeply involved in the formation and early history of the
Anglican Consultative Council, and being both English and Canadian, I have very
serious concern for the continuance of the Anglican Communion. It is unique in
its philosophy of unity in diversity, and, through this, it has been able to
reconcile many thorny questions. But if the African Primates in question
persist in their current paths of thinking, I greatly fear a break-up is
probable. In any case, it should be a matter for the ACC — including the
Canadian Church and ECUSA — to ponder, until reconciliation is reached.
PAMELA BIRD
Apartment 1405
1360 York Mills Road, Don Mills
Ontario M3A 2A3, Canada