Archbishop Williams: ‘Severe Challenges’ Face Communion

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams prayed for renewal of the Anglican Communion in his opening presidential address Sunday afternoon, and urged Lambeth Conference participants not to become distracted or to dismiss the program format prematurely.

 

“Quite a few people have said that the new ways we’re suggesting of doing our business are an attempt to avoid tough decisions, and have the effect of replacing substance with process,” he said. “To such people, I’d simply say, ‘How effective have the old methods really been?’”

 

Archbishop Williams began his address by gently poking fun at media reports which “seem to know better than any of us what is going to happen,” but later in a candid moment he admitted that the Anglican Communion is in the midst “of one of the most severe challenges” it has ever faced.

 

“In institutional terms, we need renewal, and this is the moment for it,” he said. “Because it is not an option to hope that we can somehow just carry on as we always have. The rival bids to give Anglicanism a new shape are too strong, and we need to have a vision that is at least as compelling and as theologically deep as any other discussion.”

 

If given a chance, the work of the much-publicized indaba discussion groups has two advantages over the formats used at previous conferences, Archbishop Williams said. He said the groups are not tied as tightly to procedural methods most familiar to those from Europe and North America, and whatever is eventually decided will be “owned” by the greatest number of people who won’t feel as though they were manipulated or bullied.

 

The indaba process was explained again to a skeptical media during a briefing that occurred between the 11 a.m. Eucharist at Canterbury Cathedral and the presidential address, which began at approximately 4 p.m. under a tent up the hill from the cathedral on the campus of the University of Kent. Several members of the press questioned how much participation could be accomplished in a group discussion of less than two hours with more than 40 participants in each group.

 

In response, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, primate of Southern Africa, likened the process to the gospel account of Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and said that the indaba concept would not be limited to the time allotted for discussion of a particular topic.

 

 

 

Archbishop Aspinall was also questioned during the briefing about the absence of as many as a quarter of the Communion’s bishops, including a number of bishops from his own church.

 

“I am greatly saddened by Archbishop [Peter] Jensen’s [of Sydney] decision not to come,” he said referring to the highest profile absentee from his own church. (None of the bishops from the Diocese of Sydney, Australia’s largest are attending.) “Archbishop Jensen comes from the evangelical wing of our church and their absence will make our work slower. Intensive engagement from previous conferences will also be missing,” he said.

 

The subject of the missing bishops has been mentioned frequently by conference organizers and bishops, with some saying it proves that the Anglican Communion is already broken. Archbishop Aspinall said that the absence of so many bishops would be an important part of the overall work of the conference.