(ACNS) The International Anglican Liturgical Consultation met August 3-8 at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Auckland, in the Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia. We are grateful to the Local Arrangements Committee, the Right Reverend Winston Halapua and the Right Reverend Kito Pikaahu, the Right Reverend George Connor, Mrs. Heather Skilling and the Very Reverend Ross Bay who shaped the conference and tended to our travel and practical needs with care.
The gathering comprised Anglicans from fourteen of the Provinces of the Anglican Communion. Particular welcome was given to the first representatives from the Anglican Church in Korea and the Church of North India. Due to unforeseen difficulties regarding travel and visa matters, several of our members were unable to be with us. We upheld them in our prayers, as we prayed for the Churches of the Communion and for our ecumenical friends.
[blockquote] An interim document has emerged from our work on Marriage this week. [/blockquote]
So where is the document??
It looks like the marriage document (and the Palermo funeral document) are purely provisional drafts at this point that are being circulated back to the various provincial liturgical authorities for their comments prior to publication. The IALC has no official status in the Communion, but acts only as a resource for the 44 autocephalous member churches (38 provinces and 6 smaller churches dependent on Canterbury).
Only 14 Provinces “represented”? What are we to infer about the state of the Anglican “Communion”?
Given the state of the Communion, they should make the draft public – especially given the sensitive nature of the topic, i.e. marriage.
1. I note that of the 39 Provincial representatives, precisely one was a black African. This indicates the most African Provinces lack the money or lack the interest or actively disagree with the work being done by the IALC. This surely impoverishes their meetings and can only bering into question the usefulness of their reports.
2. I note the presence amongst those delegates representing TEC of Fr. Richard Fabian. He is co-founder of the wildly liberal Gregory of Nyssa parish in San Fransisco. This is the church in which Malcolm X is included among their mural of saints and their write and use their own eucharistic prayers (despite the breach of this church’s discipline).
#5 – fior Africa the issue is certainly not lack of interest. Money, perhaps lack of trust, but also less developed infrastructure to allow for appointing/electing people to these kinds of committees.
I do note that historically the IALC has focussed almost entirely on liturgical issues flowing out of the North American and British context. I notice too that IALC members often fund their own travel costs (effectively ruling out anyone not from the developed world). It’s also worth saying that IALC focuses, in part, on membership of almost wholly western scholarly liturgical societies as a criteria for membership. It’s unclear to me whether this is principally a scholarly get together for developed nation’s Anglican liturgists (I believe it originated from such) or a cross Provincial consultative body. If it intends to be the latter it is dramatically failing.
It would be tragic is those Provinces which are in impaired communion with TEC and Canada don’t participate in inter-Anglican bodies. They would exert considerable strength and input.
Zero representation from any Spanish speaking Province. You’d probably have pay to have an interpreter anyway.