Posted Monday 09 February 2009
Image courtesy of the Anglican Communion.
The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, The Most Rev Dr Idris Jones, comments on last week’s Anglican Primates Meeting, which took place from 1 to 5 February in Alexandria, Egypt:
The Anglican primates have issued a Letter to the Communion following their recent very constructive and positive meeting in Alexandria. The meeting was attended by all the Primates, other than the Moderators of the United Churches in North and South India and Pakistan where the election of a new primate is shortly to take place.
The Primates supported the recommendations made to the Archbishop of Canterbury by the Windsor Continuation Group to take action to bring the Communion to a clearer understanding of how it might, as a whole, focus more on mission in the world as we live in it today. We heard presentations from around the world which demonstrated the vitality of this World Church and the work being done in Provinces to bring the Gospel of Christ to people in practical terms as well as spiritual nurture.
On behalf of the Communion the Primates responded to first hand reports of life in Zimbabwe, Gaza and Sudan and renewed the call for peace initiatives to be taken seriously and where agreed to be respected and put into action immediately. It is the innocent poor who are the first to suffer the consequences that come from de-stabilisation of legitimate government.
We await with interest the proposed draft of an Anglican Covenant which invites participation in deeper bonds of affection within the Communion and which will be presented to the Anglican Consultative Council in May 2009. The Communion is moving towards a new appreciation of how our bonds create opportunity for deep sharing and support and which sometimes also call us to order our life with ‘generous restraint’ in order to sustain Communion.
New initiatives have begun in Faith and Order consultation; in an exploration of the place of the Bible in the life of the Church; in offering mediation in those situations where it is needed and in the creation of an Anglican Alliance to use the network of dioceses and congregations around the world to respond directly - church to church - to bring relief to those in need.
To be a part of this meeting was a privilege aided by the wonderful setting in Alexandria and the hospitality of the Diocese of Egypt. The timetable permitted no sight-seeing but the experience has whetted the appetite to return for more in depth exploration of the area.
Please see the Primates Meetings section of the Anglican Communion website for futher information about the meeting.
