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'Through
prayer and action': the seeds of a new Anglicanism?
There is a curious set of occurrences happening in the Episcopal Church and wider Anglican Communion that is confounding individuals who seek to control and manage the ecclesial affairs of this corner of the world Christian community. On one side there are those who are worried that the life and witness of the Body of Christ is being diluted -- and possibly even corrupted -- by an embrace of "life-styles" and mores that have hitherto been either prohibited or unnoticed by the established powers of the church. This has led to an increase in attempts to define "limits of diversity" for the Anglican Communion. A recent proposal, authored by Archbishops Maurice Sinclair of the Southern Cone of South America and Drexel Gomez of the West Indies and brought before the March 2000 meeting of the Anglican Primates, sought to penalize the Episcopal Church, USA, over its embrace of women's ordination and its more open attitudes to homosexuality.
On the other side is an equal, and perhaps more powerful, movement of the Spirit that is challenging the church to new levels of faithfulness and engagement in the world. This movement is not confined to old categories or battle lines. Instead it is expanding previous definitions and classifications, along the way creating new constituencies and allies for action. A poignant example is the growing solidarity between such individuals as Louis Crew, founder of the gay and lesbian organization in the Episcopal Church known as Integrity, and Diane Knippers, Executive Director of the conservative Washington-based lobby, The Institute for Religion and Democracy. In the last few months, Crew and Knippers have joined hands across their divergent perspectives on human sexuality to fight in common against the tragedy of war, religious persecution and ethnic cleansing in Southern Sudan.
Shifting paradigms
The philosopher Thomas S, Kuhn was instrumental in developing an understanding of the history of science based upon epochs of thought and theoretical constructs. In science, he posited, discoveries of new information about the realities of the physical world forced a complete reworking of the scientific world view resulting in new "paradigms" of thought. Newtonian physics and quantum theory are just two examples of radical changes in scientific thought occasioned by new discoveries. Social scientists have used the historical philosophical perspectives developed by Kuhn and others in the physical sciences to analyze and explain their own "paradigms" and "paradigm shifts" in their respective fields. Most discourse in the social sciences have embraced a philosophical construct that sees the world moving beyond the limitations of modernity to an emerging post-modern reality. For such individuals, the modern world of the Enlightenment is seen as an either/or land of binary constructs that values clean lines of authority and definition. Mankind (the non-inclusive form of humanity is used deliberately here) is placed at the center of creation and the Cartesian formula of "cogito ergo sum" rules supreme. Post-modernity, on the other hand, seeks to move beyond the either/or worldview to a space of both/and. Humankind is de-centered in a larger web of inter-relationships with all of creation.
Within most theological circles, especially in the Western academy, the movement from the either/or modern world to the both/and post-modern embrace of reality is a well-accepted position. Early on, Catholic theologians Hans Kung and David Tracy engaged post-modernism as it pertains to the life and witness of the church. The emergence of many "liberation" theologies, including Latin-American, black, feminist, womanist, mujerista, lesbian and gay, minjung and other "contextual theologies" are vital examples of the many ways of knowing and being in post-modernity. Even the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Frank T. Griswold, deeply steeped in and formed by the ascetical disciplines of early church monastics, sees the world and the church as an organic plurality of truths and experiences.
Advent of post-colonialism -- but not in the church?
Alongside of, and related to, the emergence of the post-modern paradigm is the advent of post-colonial thought and writing. Post-colonialism appeared first in literary theory, political science and economics. Voices that had suffered at the hands of Western colonial domination began to emerge and take control over defining themselves and their realities. Refusing to be subjects of their colonial masters anymore, such writers as Edward Said from Palestine, Hommi Babba and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak from India, and Stuart Hall from Jamaica, insist on being agents of their own emancipation and self-identification. They work against the modern either/or construction of the "other," for such creates the opportunity for subjugation based on race, ethnicity and gender. Post-colonial theorists challenge the power dynamics of center/margin, inside/outside, home/foreign by vigorously refusing to be categorized as the "other." They are voices of liberation and freedom that seek global realities where forces of colonial domination and control over the marginalized and subjugated have been thrown off for good.
Interestingly, post-colonial thought has not yet been widely utilized or embraced in most theological and ecclesiological circles. This is particularly curious given the fact that the demographic growth of world Christianity over the last four decades, has occurred in those places that were previously colonies of the West. Professor Lamin Sanneh of Yale University is quick to point out that one of the causal factors of the growth of the church in the previous colonies was due to the increasing vitality of indigenous agency after the colonists departed the territories. One might think with so many Christians today having been reared at the hands of the colonists, often in missionary schools alongside individuals who would later become the first-generation of post-colonial theorists, that post-colonialism would be an accepted part of theological and missiological discourse the world over. Such is hardly the case.
While post-modern theory is gaining an audience in the church, particularly in the U.S., post-colonial discourse remains relatively unheard in seminaries and theological circles, never mind within the power structures of the church. It would seem that, while we in the church, especially in the U.S. and England, are ready to accept emerging post-modern paradigms of thought, we are not yet prepared to be completely de-centered in our power and global reach as to systems of thought and theological discourse.
There are subtle dynamics at work here, both in the academy and in the structures of the church, that hinder the embrace of post-colonial thought across the Anglican Communion. In the academy, most graduate school chairs in the theological disciplines as well most access to international academic publishing houses remain largely in the hands of individuals from the industrialized West. At the global level, the maldistribution of educational resources between the previous colonizers and the previously colonized seems to be more pronounced in the church, especially in the Anglican Communion, than in the secular academy. This results in an intellectual bias in the Anglican Communion, such that upper-level degrees from educational institutions in Great Britain and the U.S. are highly sought-after among leaders in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. A graduate of the Oxbridges in England or an Episcopal seminary in the U.S. often returns home with his newly minted M.A or Ph.D. and immediately ascends to a position of power in his church, more than likely being elected bishop in short order. (The male pronoun is used deliberately here, for given the powers of patriarchy in the church and the world, the majority of individuals advanced for further study around the world are men.)
Despite the inhibiting effect of the gross inequality of theological educational resources across the Anglican Communion that favor Great Britain and North America, there are signs that, just as old categories in the U.S. are beginning to give way to new solidarities in the coming post-modern church, the Anglican Communion at the international level is struggling to become post-colonial in its polity and processes. The recent Primates Meeting of the Anglican Communion held at Kanuga Conference Center in North Carolina last March gives us possible insights into an emerging new Anglicanism.
A 'showdown' that never materialized
For many, especially for conservatives in the U.S. and their colleagues around the world, the 2001 Primates Meeting was to be the final showdown where the American Episcopal Church would be chastised, once and for all, for its "revisionist" positions on women's ordination and human sexuality. Leading the charge, was Maurice W. Sinclair, Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone of South America. Sinclair, an evangelical Englishman, along with the Archbishop of the Anglican province in the West Indies, Drexel Gomez, put before the Anglican Communion a proposal that would have the Primates Meeting define acceptable limits of Anglican diversity as well as advise the Archbishop of Canterbury what church is or is not part of the Anglican Communion. The not too thinly veiled threat of the Sinclair/Gomez proposal, published as To Mend the Net by the conservative inter-Anglican lobbying group, the Ekklesia Society out of Carrollton, Texas, stated that unless the Episcopal Church, USA ceases its embrace of gay and lesbian people, it should be thrown out of the Anglican Communion.
Arriving in North Carolina, the Primates found themselves invited into an intimate and retreat-like setting at the Kanuga Conference Center. Unlike the Primates Meeting in Orporto, Portugal, this gathering of Archbishops and Presiding Bishops, would not be accessible to press and outside influences. Their privacy and seclusion was added to by the fact that the mountainous surroundings of the conference center rendered cell phones and private communication lines inoperable. Conservative organizers from the U.S., who had flocked to the conference site to advance their cause, worked hard to spin a conspiracy theory around what they would call the "Kanuga Gulag." They accused John Peterson, Secretary General of the Anglican Communion and chief officer responsible for organizing the Primates Meeting, of building a wall of silence around the Primates in order to advance a liberal agenda. The truth was that it was only without the influence of outside agitators and observers that the Primates could enter into a deep place of honesty, sharing and communion with God and one another.
Much credit for the depoliticization of the 2001 Primates Meeting needs to be given to the President of the Meeting, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey. He could very easily have advanced the Sinclair/Gomez proposal and put in place processes that would eventually ostracize one or another church in the Anglican Communion. Likewise, as President of the meeting, he also could have chosen to ignore the proposal altogether, making believe that all was well in the family of churches. By all reports, the Archbishop of Canterbury chose to do neither.
Early in the meeting, Carey called the primates together for a fireside chat of the Sinclair/Gomez proposal. At his invitation, the primates shared their diverse perspectives on To Mend the Net. It was clear that there was not agreement on how to live faithfully within the differences in Anglicanism. Under the careful leadership of Carey, consensus did emerge, however, that the Primates, and the whole Anglican Communion, needed to find a different way of being together than the exercise of party politics that set churches and individuals over against one another. The primates had come to the precipice of division and chose not to jump into the abyss of schism.
Going deeper into the meaning of communion
Differences between the primates and between churches in the Anglican Communion did not magically disappear at the fireside that evening at Kanuga. What did occur, however, was an invitation and an expectation to go deeper into the meaning of communion. The primates were called to become a church made up of, paraphrasing Archbishop Rowan Williams of Wales, "solidarities not of our own choosing, where none can say, I have no need of you." As the meeting progressed, the primates prayed together, walked together and talked together. They heard stirring testimonies about the struggles of Christians around the world to live with faith and integrity in the face of crippling poverty, political instability, religious persecution and the scourge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In his presentation to the Kanuga meeting, The Rev. Gideon Byamugisha from Uganda, himself HIV positive, put a face to the devastating disease and forced the primates to move beyond rhetoric and disembodied pronouncements to genuine action. It was in this movement from talk about the church to action for the world, that a new way of being together for the primates -- and perhaps even for the whole Anglican Communion -- began to emerge.
By the end of the Kanuga primates meeting, the heads of the churches of the Anglican Communion had chosen common action in God's mission over doctrinal disagreements and sentiments of schism. Eschewing the previous practice of issuing a communiqué or statement, the primates instead offered a pastoral letter calling Anglicans the world over to prayer and action. The letter describes how the primates had heard stories of the freeing good news of Jesus Christ in the face of pain and persecution in such diverse places as Iran, Congo, Sudan, India, and Zimbabwe. Encountering these realities as genuine brothers in Christ led the primates to conclude: "Coming close to these and many other situations, we have discovered the unity among us, and we call on all Anglicans to discover the same closeness through prayer and action."
"Through prayer and action," maybe here are the seeds of a new Anglicanism. For the first time ever, the primates took two bold and deliberate steps coming out of Kanuga. They specifically challenged Anglicans worldwide to pray during the days between Ascension and Pentecost for growing unity in the Anglican Communion, for those enslaved by poverty or wealth and for those living with HIV/AIDS. This "Call to Prayer" was followed with an "Action Plan" that laid out specific tasks before the Communion in general, and the primates in particular. Top on the Action Plan agenda were poverty and trade issues, HIV/AIDS, the needs of theological education across the communion and regional concerns in the Congo and Iran. Not wanting to neglect fully ecclesial concerns, the primates asked that fresh attention be paid to the role of the primates and the Primates Meeting and to the meaning of Communion "unity." They also called for follow-up on the work of the commissions and networks within Anglicanism such as the emerging network of Anglican Contextual Theologians. Consistent with the Archbishop of Canterbury's stated wishes previous to the Kanuga meeting, To Mend the Net, was referred to the newly-appointed Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission.
In calling for prayer and direct action to confront death dealing realities of the world, such as economic globalization and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the primates not only succeeded in avoiding division in the Communion, but actually challenged the church to a new level of pertinence and accountability beyond our inner-ecclesial squabbles. The Call to Prayer, coupled with the specifics of the Action Plan, will help to save the church from our self-preoccupations while turning us inside out for the world for which Christ died.
Perhaps as Anglicans Christians today we are called not to focus on and argue about those things that divide us from one another within the body of Christ. Rather, given the suffering and pain of the world, perhaps God is calling the Anglican Communion to live beyond ourselves for the sake of those who are not of our fold. Living for others and not for ourselves will require us to recognize and live into the post-modern and post-colonial reality that we are not all the same; that real differences exist, and that the world is a wonderful plurality of peoples and contexts.
Living for others and not for ourselves means that we in the West need to own our culpability in the last two centuries of colonialism that profited some of us at the expense of the wider world. In our shared commitment to serve God's mission of justice, compassion and reconciliation in the world, we will discover new life in the risen Christ. The common witness of Louis Crew and Diane Knippers for justice in the Sudan and the coordinated efforts by the primates to address economic globalization and the HIV/AIDS pandemic are signs of the new church and a new Anglican Communion.
Related Links Visit the Episcopal Divinity School at www.episdivschool.edu to learn more about its Anglican, Global, & Ecumenical Studies program.
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Ian
T. Douglas is Associate Professor of World Mission and Global Christianity
at the Episcopal Divnity School in Cambridge, Mass., and a member of the
Epsicopal Church Publishing Company's board (ECPC publishes The Witness).
He can be reached at