Anglican Council Passes the Temporary Withdrawal of US & Canada Churches

On 22nd June, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) meeting in the University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England, passed an important resolution dealing with the Primates' Statement at Dromantine, Ireland in February. It requested the voluntary withdrawal of the US Episcopal Church (ECUSA) and the Anglican Church of Canada from the Anglican Consultative Council, for the period leading up to the next Lambeth Conference.

The vote, which was held by a secret ballot, recorded 30 in favour, 28 against and four abstentions. Seven members did not vote or did not attend the session.

The three Council members from the US and the three Council members from Canada, who have attended the meeting as observers this time, were not allowed to participant in the voting process, according to the Anglican Journal.

In the light of the Primates' request at Dromantine for the voluntary withdrawal of the ECUSA and Canadian Anglican members from the ACC, the governing councils of both churches had voted to send their members this time. The Churches felt that this action respected the primates’ request, but also allowed their members to be available for questions and consultations with their fellow council delegates.

Nevertheless, in a statement released through Episcopal Church communications officials after the resolution yesterday, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold of the EAUSA said, "The vote, which was contingent on the absence of the six votes of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, reveals a divide within the membership of the ACC."

He added that the ECUSA’s participation in social work and other activities in the Anglican Communion would not be affected by the vote.

Quoted by the Anglican Journal, he said, "the work and mission of the Anglican Communion is carried out largely through international commissions and networks in which the Episcopal Church continues as a fully active and committed participant. It is through these means and our numerous other relationships focused on mission to our hurting world that we will, with God's grace, find our way forward."

The full text of the Resolution following the Primates' Statement at Dromantine is as follows:

The Anglican Consultative Council

(1) takes note of the decisions taken by the Primates at their recent meeting in Dromantine, Northern Ireland, in connection with the recommendations of the Windsor Report 2004;

(2) notes further that the Primates there reaffirmed "the standard of Christian teaching on matters of human sexuality expressed in the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10, which should command respect as the position overwhelmingly adopted by the bishops of the Anglican Communion";

(3) endorses and affirms those decisions;

(4) consequently endorses the Primates' request that "in order to recognise the integrity of all parties, the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada voluntarily withdraw their members from the Anglican Consultative Council, for the period leading up to the next Lambeth Conference";

(5) interprets reference to the Anglican Consultative Council to include its Standing Committee and the Inter-Anglican Finance and Administration Committee.