Archbishop’s Letter Could Affect 30 Leaders

From The Living Church via TitusOneNine:

Posted on: June 2, 2010

Now that the Archbishop of Canterbury has released his Pentecost letter and its proposed steps of discipline, a significant next step is interpreting what the letter means.

If all the Instruments of Communion were to exclude members based on actions that disregard the moratoria of the Windsor Report, 30 Anglican leaders — from laity to priests to archbishops — could be affected.

The Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, founding missionary bishop of the Nigeria-sponsored Convocation of Anglicans in North America, said the archbishop’s letter does not cause him concerns.

The primates, he told The Living Church, “never agreed that there’s a moral equivalence between what they see as an attempt to change the Anglican Communion’s teaching and a provision for temporary pastoral care.”

The application of the archbishop’s letter, he said, depends on the interpretation of “past, present and future” actions.

“Is the [Anglican Church in North America] seen as a cross-border action?” he asked. “Am I considered a cross-border action? Is everything I say and do a cross-border action?”

Episcopal News Service has reported that the archbishop’s proposals would affect two of the Episcopal Church’s representatives on the Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue (the Rev. Thomas Ferguson, the Episcopal Church’s interim deputy for ecumenical and interreligious relations, and Assistant Bishop the Rt. Rev. William O. Gregg, assistant bishop of North Carolina) and one member of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (the Rev. Dr. Katherine Grieb of Virginia Theological Seminary).

On the same body, the archbishop’s proposal also could affect the Rev. Canon Philip Hobson and Natasha Klukach of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Rev. Joseph Wandera of the Anglican Church of Kenya.

ENS described the Ven. Dr. Dapo Asaju of Nigeria, the Rev. Edison Muhindo Kalengyo of Uganda and the Rt. Rev. Tito Zavala of the Diocese of Chile, Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, as “likely to be affected” by the archbishop’s proposal.

“I shall be inviting the views of all members of the Primates’ Meeting on the handling of these matters with a view to the agenda of the next scheduled meeting in January 2011,” the archbishop wrote.

Six of 38 primates could be affected by such discussions: Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori; the Most Rev. Frederick J. Hiltz, Anglican Church of Canada; the Most Rev. Emmanuel M. Kolini, Episcopal Church of Rwanda; the Most Rev. Nicholas D. Okoh, the Church of Nigeria; the Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi, the Church of Uganda; and the Most Rev. Eliud Wabukala, Anglican Church of Kenya.

The archbishop also has written that “there will have to be further consultation” regarding representation on the Anglican Consultative Council and the Anglican Communion’s Joint Standing Committee.

Depending on those consultations, membership on the Anglican Consultative Council could be the most widely affected among the Instruments of Communion. The consultations could affect these ACC members:

The Episcopal Church: The Rt. Rev. Dr. Ian T. Douglas and Josephine Hicks and another representative still to be elected. The Episcopal Church has three representatives on the ACC. Executive Council is weighing whether to elect Bishop Douglas, who was elected to the ACC as a presbyteral member, to succeed the Rt. Rev. Catherine S. Roskam as an episcopal member.

The Anglican Church of Canada: The Rev. Dr. Stephen Andrews, the Rt. Rev. Susan Elisabeth Moxley and Suzanne Lawson.

The Anglican Church of Kenya: The Rt. Rev. Samson Mwakitawa Mwaluda and Amos Kirani Kiriro.

The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion): The Rt. Rev. Ikechi Nwachukwu Nwosu, Abraham Yisa and the Ven. Dr. Abraham Chibuike Okorie.

The Anglican Church of Rwanda: The Rt. Rev. Josias Sendegeya and Jane Dinah Mutoni.

Southern Cone: The Rt. Rev. Bill Godfrey, Bishop of Peru.

The Church of Uganda: Jolly Babirukamu and the Rt. Rev. Elia Paul Luzinda Kizito.

On the Joint Standing Committee the consultations could affect Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori, Bishop Douglas and Jolly Babirukamu of Uganda. On the Joint Standing Committee the consultations could affect Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori, Bishop Douglas and Jolly Babirukamu of Uganda. Archbishop Orombi, a member of the committee, has not attended any of its meetings since the primates met in February 2007.

Douglas LeBlanc