Archbishop Williams Proposes 'Indaba' Format for Primates, ACC

From The Living Church:

Posted on: August 26, 2008

The Indaba discussion groups used at last month’s Lambeth Conference were so successful that Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams plans to use the small-group discussion tool again for meetings next year involving the primates and the Anglican Consultative Council, according to a pastoral letter he sent earlier today to bishops of the Anglican Communion.

“Many participants believed that the Indaba method, while not designed to achieve final decisions, was such a necessary aspect of understanding what the questions might be that they expressed a desire to see the method used more widely and to continue among themselves the conversations begun in Canterbury,” he said. “I shall be seeking to identify the resources we shall need in order to take forward some of the proposals about our structures and methods.”

The Lambeth Conference Design Group believed that the rebuilding of trust and relationships was of paramount importance for the Anglican Communion at the present time and they were determined to allow every bishop’s voice to be heard and to seek a final outcome to which all participants could consent and feel as though they had contributed.

“I believe that the conference succeeded in doing this to a very remarkable degree, more than most people expected,” Archbishop Williams said. “At the end of our time together, many people, especially some of the newer bishops, said that they had been surprised by the amount of convergence they had seen. And there can be no doubt that practically all who were present sincerely wanted the Communion to stay together.”

Archbishop Williams listed a number of serious problems any one of which could undermine the hard-won gains of the conference. Among them: nearly one-third of all bishops invited declined to attend Lambeth, some provinces may be unwilling to support the proposed Anglican Covenant and significant differences of opinion remain over the proposed moratoria proposed by the Windsor Continuation Group.

“A strong majority of bishops present agreed that moratoria on same-sex blessings and on cross-provincial interventions were necessary, but they were aware of the conscientious difficulties this posed for some, and there needs to be a greater clarity about the exact expectations and what can be realistically implemented,” Archbishop Williams said. Archbishop Williams lists only two moratoria in his pastoral letter. The Windsor Continuation Group also called for a cessation on the consecration of partnered homosexual persons to the episcopate.

Despite the differences there was overwhelming unity around the need for the church to contribute toward realization of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, “to help churches increase and improve their own capacity to deliver change for the sake of justice” and for bishops to develop “clear goals for developing environmentally responsible policies in church life,” Archbishop Williams said.