Posted on 06/20/2005 5:54:53 PM PDT by sionnsar
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams defused an early crisis at the Anglican Consultative Council triennial meeting (ACC-13) in Nottingham today, pouring cold water on attempts to force an early resolution of the North American question.
Sources at the meeting confirmed that rival proposals surfaced at the start of proceedings. Although The Living Church has not seen the texts nor learned the identity of their sponsors, a resolution backed by a number of conservative delegations was proffered asking the representatives of the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada to leave the meeting. Despite containing the requisite signature of 10 delegates, the ACC's chairman, Bishop John Paterson, reportedly ruled it “out of order.”
A rival initiative asked the ACC to seat the U.S. and Canadian delegations, granting them voice and vote. Supporters of this measure advanced two primary arguments. One view held the ACC had the legal responsibility to order its affairs, and that any steps to discipline the U.S. and Canadian delegations should be taken at the meeting by the ACC, and not agreed to beforehand. The other view expressed support for the stance taken by the Episcopal Church and indicated dissatisfaction with the strong line taken against it.
At the opening session on Sunday morning, Bishop Paterson told the delegates that a resolution had been received, but due to lack of time, would not be addressed until the pertinent point in the agenda had been reached. No further details were offered.
Ten minutes into the next business session on Monday morning, Bishop Paterson announced the session would be closed and asked the media, visitors, and the U.S. and Canadian delegations to leave. No reason was given for the change to “executive session.” After the private session ended, the delegates filed out, taking coffee in a somber mood, and the communications staff said no formal explanation of the closed session was expected.
Speaking in confidence to TLC, a number of delegates said there had been an airing of rival views over the U.S. and Canada question. After both sides laid out their conflicting concerns and demands, Archbishop Rowan Williams rose and asked the Council to refrain from taking precipitous action, urging patience, Christian friendship and charity.
The Episcopal Church presentation panel, led by Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, is scheduled to address the ACC on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. local time (9:30 a.m. EDT). Bishop Griswold will lead the seven-member team in presenting “To Set Our Hope in Christ,” a report prepared under the supervision of Loyola University professor the Rev. Mark McIntosh, who is canon theologian to the Presiding Bishop.
Though the issues raised by delegates were not conclusively resolved by the executive session, the advice on conduct toward others offered by Archbishop Williams in his presidential address, after the break, seemed to have chastened some of the more strident voices.
(The Rev.) George Conger is in Nottingham, England reporting for The Living Church from the triennial meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council.
To read the text of the Archbishop of Canterbury's presidential address, click here to link to the Anglican Communion News Service.
More Coverage of the ACC Triennial:
· Withdrawn Status of North Americans Noted
· ACC Opening Session Surprise
· ACC Meeting Opens with Dinner and Orientation
· Bishop Roskam to Serve in Two Capacities at Nottingham
Photos from Nottingham
· U.S., Canadian representatives seated apart
· The Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, ACC secretary general
· The Rev. Canon Michael Burrows of Ireland
· New Zealand Bishop John C. Paterson, chairman of the ACC
· Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams
· Bishops Moxley and Roskam
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Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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