The Archbishop of Cape Town responds to the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane released this statement today:
I am grateful to the Archbishop of Canterbury for his lengthy and careful reflection on being an Anglican today, and look forward to considering this in detail.
However, I would like to stress that constant talk of schism from various quarters does not address the heart of the matter which is living with difference and otherness.
It is our nature as human beings to be diverse and therefore the modern world requires the church to deal with diversity. This reflects the unity and diversity we find within the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in whose image we are created.
We need to be tolerant of difference.
The Anglican Church in Southern Africa knows what it is to live with difference and otherness. We were born in conflict but, in spite of our problems and disagreements, we have agreed on the fundamentals and recognised that we are together despite our differences. You do not find us today divided into a black church and a white church, for example.
At present there is a lack of appreciation for the governing structures of the Anglican Communion. The worldwide Anglican Church is made up of autonomous provinces which make their own laws.
The Episcopal Church in the USA is one of the most democratic of our autonomous provinces. The Diocese of New Hampshire elected Bishop Gene Robinson democratically, according to their constitution and canons. The same can be said of the recent election of the new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Those elections were not illegitimate within the rules of the American church which is an orderly church – as is our church in Southern Africa. There was a clear majority in favour of both candidates.
A proper understanding of how the institutional life of the Anglican Communion has served our spiritual life and ministry is fundamental to avoiding a knee-jerk resorting to talk of schism whenever any disagreements arise among us.
Jim,
Thanks for posting this statement. I can't find it anywhere else. Can you post the referring link somewhere?
Thanks a lot.
Posted by Catabrigian | June 28, 2006 11:52 AM
A truly witnessing piece of reflection from the South African Province and its leader. If only the other African provinces as well as the Global North could understand his words.
Maybe he should be the ABC!
Posted by RevCatherine | June 28, 2006 12:39 PM
A bit of a strawman argument, don't you think? I don't think anyone of substance was arguing that TEC didn't follow our own democratic procedures in electing Bishop Robinson or PB Jefforts Schori.
I would have preferred he be more forthright in his defense of TEC--just come out and say that you have no problem with an actively gay bishop and be done with it. Don't hide behind a scarecrow.
As for his comment about us being an "orderly church," I think the chaos on the floor of GC2006 the last two days suggests otherwise (but I get his bigger point about rules).
Posted by Widening Gyre | June 28, 2006 1:03 PM
Archbishop Williams' capitulation to those forces within Anglicanism that would continue the Church's millenium-spanning silencing of its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered children would now appear to be near complete.
So very sad, particularly coming from a man who initially had shown so much promise of reform. Under the guise of 'maintaining unity' (even when that unity encompasses falling into march behind an individual such as the Primate of Nigeria who has called for the continued outlawing of homosexual conduct and whose country's policies of putting gay people to death said Primate ardently supports), Dr. Williams has betrayed not only his LGBT brethren, but has forfeited the prophetic dimension of his important office.
And once again, sadly, we see the axiomatic lack of quality exhibited by "liberal Churchpeople" as long-term allies in the struggle for human freedom, dignity and equality.
I at one time believed that if Anglicanism had any distinctive charism within the Christian tradition, it was that of hospitality. Clearly I erred in this.
When the history of the Church in this period we are living through is finally written, I feel that Rowan Williams will be recalled as someone who willingly sacrificed the call to do justice on the altar of the God of conformity and will emerge as, at best, a tragic figure, and at worst an enemy of human freedom, happiness and dignity.
William A. Courson
Executive Director
The Magnus Hirschfeld Centre for Human Rights
http://come.to/humanrights
Posted by William Courson, Executive Director | September 3, 2006 8:55 PM