‘Unlikely’ Primates will be added to Anglican Council

The chair of the Anglican Consultative Council has said it is not likely that member provinces and churches of the Anglican Communion will approve a motion to allow 38 primates across the world to become members of the ACC.

|TOP|Bishop John Paterson, chair of the ACC and Bishop of Auckland, told members of the Council of General Synod (CoGS), that there was “a great deal of unease” expressed by ACC members over the possibility the Council could become dominated by primates.

“What happened in Nottingham was that there was deep-seated anger from some members of the ACC of primates acting on their own towards ACC,” said Bishop Paterson.

“The primates decided on an action against two churches who are members of a body (ACC) mandated by the constitution to be consultative. How can it be consultative if two important churches are not able to take part?”

Bishop Paterson added that there was a feeling among ACC members that “perhaps we shouldn’t allow the primates to meet alone ever again”.

In their February 2005 meeting, the primates had called upon the Canadian and US churches to “voluntarily withdraw” from the ACC meeting in Nottingham in June last year in an effort to restore unity within the Anglican Communion which had splintered over the issue of same-sex blessings in New Westminster and the ordination of a gay bishop in New Hampshire.

“There was a measure of resentment that the primates had acted precipitately and punitively to the ACC by saying that Canada and ECUSA (Episcopal Church in the United States of America) could not be members of the ACC,” said Bishop Paterson in an interview in the Anglican Journal.

Bishop Paterson, former primate of New Zealand, said it would take about two or three years to complete the ratification process regarding the inclusion of primates to the ACC.

|AD|The motion passed during the ACC meeting in Nottingham also requires a two-thirds majority vote from member churches of the Anglican Communion.

Commenting on a feeling of “unease” he had picked up on in a number of churches, Bishop Paterson, said: “I don’t think it will be approved.”

He explained: “It will take a full two-to-three-year period for all the member churches to meet and engage in a process to find the answer. In that space of time the word will move around as to why people don’t agree with it. I think that will gain momentum.”

Bishop Paterson added that there was a feeling it would be better if the primates were accepted into the ACC, the only place where the lay voice can be heard, than allow them to continue to act independently and meet on their own.

“The other view, which is gaining ascendancy is the fear that clergy and lay people in the ACC would look to the primate to given them a lead as to how to decide to vote on any particular issue and that that would therefore destroy the importance of the ACC as a really consultative body, where the voices of those other than bishops are valued, followed and listened to.”

He emphasised in his speech at the CoGS meeting that “the Communion needs Canada and I think Canada needs the Communion,” adding that both the Canadian and the American churches had been “exemplary” in adhering to the recommendations of the Windsor Report.