Transcript of the speech of Archbishop Mouneer Anis ”“ Plenary 1 GSE 4

(Please note: this is from a blog reader and is based with thanks on the Anglican TV video which may be found at this link or below. This is not an approved transcript and while transcribed carefully any errors it contains are this person’s own–KSH).

Global South Structures

Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini was very kind to give me the chance to speak first. I am very grateful to you.

This morning’s bible study, the very rich study that was given to us by Archbishop John Chew reminded me of a story, a story which happened in Egypt, and particularly it happened in Alexandria. It happened in the third century. There was a gifted preacher and intelligent priest and his name was Arius. And Arius had many followers, and he wanted to reconcile the Christian faith, and the essentials of faith with the Greek philosophy, so that the Greek philosophers who were living in Alexandria would actually accept the idea of the triune God. But by doing this he made Christ less divine. And because of this there was a division in the church in Alexandria. There were faithful people, and there were heretics. And the faithful people were getting less, and smaller and smaller. But they fought persistently and without ceasing. And the heretics started to increase and increase, and they got the support of the Emperor; one after another, until the Arians became a bigger church.

And the church fathers of the orthodox church, they fought, they stood for the truth, but they also felt that they should spend their time in a more productive way. They took the manuscripts and they went to the desert and they started to disciple many young people, who became later on the leaders of the orthodox church of Egypt and Alexandria. If you asked me: where are the Arians today? I would say, not one, there are no Arians in Egypt. They all died out. By 600 [ad] there were no Arians in Egypt. It is only the faithful, who keep the faith who started to grow, and started to disciple many leaders. And from these, the church fathers came, starting from Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, St Athanasius of Alexandria, St Clement, St Cyril. They all were defenders of faith, but they all were discipled by the desert fathers.
And this story tells us something of the bible study we got today. There are people who [were] hard-hearted, their hearts became very hard. The more they listened to the truth, they get very hard, and they get very difficult, and they grow! Amazingly they grow!

But this is not the end of the story. The end of the story is a light that comes; the truth overcomes, and the Gospel to be proclaimed. Today the Arians disappeared and the Coptic Orthodox church in Egypt is growing very fast in the Middle East and in all the world.

And we thank God for this story because it tells us something as Anglicans. While we stand firm for the truth and speak up, we should not waste our time just reacting, but we should spend our time bringing the Good News to the world: spend our time in discipling and baptizing people for Christ. It’s a good story that the two bible studies actually can tell us today.

There is another thing. I am telling you these stories because we had very heavy meals after Archbishop John [Chew] said this wonderful study about about the covenant, and these stories may be ”˜light’ and can help us. This is a holy Korban, or a holy bread that is used in the Orthodox Church; and also we use it in the Anglican Church in Egypt, in all our churches. We don’t use wafers, we use this. But there is a beautiful scene. If you attended the Coptic Orthodox mass, at the beginning of the mass, the celebrant, whether a priest, or a bishop or the Pope himself, and I attended the mass with His Holiness Pope Shenouda several times, when at the beginning of the mass they brought the basket, and in this basket: about ten, twelve of these holy Korban, holy bread. And it is a very exciting, interesting moment when the Pope or the priest or the bishop who is celebrating the Eucharist, takes one after another and looks at it, looks at it very well and leaves it, and takes another one and leaves it and takes another one until he gets the perfectly rounded holy bread, a bread without a fault. And in a way he is telling the story of the selection of the Passover lamb who was sinless and faultless. And even they call it the lamb, the lamb holy bread and it is a symbol of Christ. And you know that Jesus is our lamb, is the lamb of God. And when he broke the bread at the last supper he said: ”˜this is my body’, so he himself, the Passover lamb, the faultless, the sinless, who died for us. He was perfect.

But also St Paul told the church to be the body of Christ, so we are the body of Christ. But the problem here is that we are not perfect. But we are called to be perfect, like our Father who is perfect. I think we are on a journey to be perfect, and the only thing that guarantees our perfection is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, as a church.

So what I am going to introduce you to today is not perfect, the structure is not perfect. We will continue to make it perfect. The church is not perfect, but we are on a journey to be perfect, because our Father is perfect.

Archbishop Kolini after I speak, will have his own remarks about the structures, but what I would like to talk about are four points:
– the history of the Global South;
– today’s context and challenges;
– and why do we need a structure; and
– a proposed Global South Structure.

The History:
The Global South ”“ I know some of the people here do not know the history, although in the book which is a very important book that Archbishop John [Chew] can raise it up, like this, so that you would know ”“ it’s all the history in this book, and it is very important.

It started in 1987, in Brisbane in Australia when the ACC meeting thought that it would be very important for the South provinces to meet together, and that happened. The first meeting was in Limuru in Kenya in 1994. And in Limuru they put two questions in front of them. The first question is: ”˜how can we be Anglican, while also true to our cultural contexts in the South?’ And the second question: ”˜how can we be more effectively used for God’s mission in the world in the power of the Holy Spirit?’ And part of the Communiqué says this, in Limuru Kenya in 1994:

“the church exists for the sake of God’s mission. God invites us to be His church, people who experience God’s salvation, and bear witness to God’s love, mercy, compassion, justice, peace and forgiveness for all people revealed finally and fully in Jesus Christ.”

Then the next Global South meeting or second Encounter was in Kuala Lumpur, and in Kuala Lumpur they made a statement about human sexuality. And I just quoted some of this statement. It says:

“Scripture bears witness to God’s will regarding human sexuality which is to be expressed only within the life-long union of a man and a woman in holy matrimony.”

The other thing in Kuala Lumpur is:

“The holy scriptures are clear in teaching that all sexual promiscuity is sin. We are convinced that this includes: homosexual practices between men or women as well as heterosexual relationships outside marriage.”

These were two important things from the communiqué of Kuala Lumpur.

The next year after Kuala Lumpur, in the Lambeth Conference 1998, I was not there, but many of the colleagues were there. The Global South bishops’ influence was crucial in the production of Resolution 1:10. Almost 88% of the bishops in the Lambeth Conference 1998 voted for Lambeth 1:10.

In Cairo in 2000, we didn’t know each other, Archbishop Akinola and Archbishop John [Chew], he was the bishop of Singapore then. We didn’t meet each other, we didn’t know each other, but we corresponded with each other and we decided to meet in Cairo in December 2000 and in Oxford in 2002, actually not 2001, we had another meeting where Archbishop Yong Ping Chong joined us in this meeting and we started to plan for the Third Encounter.

The Third Encounter happened at the Red Sea, Egypt, 2005, and we took some very important decisions in this Third Encounter. We reached a common understanding of the one holy catholic and apostolic church. This was a theme of the Encounter. We had a strong warning in regard to the Anglican Communion crisis; produced a big warning about this. And then we decided to make a track for self-reliance where my brother Keith Chua was actually in charge of this.

And then developing a Global South Catechism and the diocese of Singapore helped with others in developing this book and I think if you want to get a copy, perhaps get in touch with Archbishop John Chew and he will give you a copy of this Global South Catechism. And we were committed to advancing Christ’s mission.

Today’s Context and Challenges:
The first challenge is progressive revisions of the faith by TEC and Canada, and other provinces in the following way:
The first is: the ordination and consecration of clergy and bishops in active homosexual relations; blessings of same-sex unions in churches; denying the uniqueness of Christ – rejecting the authority of the Scripture.

And also the second challenge is the ecclesial deficit which was described by the Windsor Continuation Group, the ecclesial deficit. And I think Archbishop John Chew was part of this Windsor Continuation Group. They described the situation within the Anglican Communion as an ecclesial deficit. And this deficit is because the undermining the authority of the Primates and Lambeth Conference bishops – no follow through for the recommendations of the Windsor Report, the Primates Meetings – i.e. failure to take any disciplinary decision against the Episcopal Church and Canada ”“ the broken and impaired communion between provinces.

There are other challenges that we are facing, which is the strained ecumenical relations. Some of the churches, the ecumenical partners, stopped the dialogue with the Anglican Communion. An example of this is the Oriental Orthodox Church, and the Roman Catholic Church, and the Greek Orthodox Church. They all put on hold the dialogue with the Anglican Communion ”“ strained ecumenical relations.

There was no support given from the official Instruments of Communion to the faithful within the Episcopal Church ”“ the groups like the Communion Partners, and also of the ACNA, the Anglican Church in North America. The litigations, and the depositions of bishops, and the threats that comes from TEC, all the time, the Episcopal Church. And the strained relation between some orthodox Anglicans as a result. Also there was some tension between the orthodox Anglicans themselves.

That is the context and these are the challenges in front of us which we need to consider as we consider the structure.

Now I want to answer the question:

Why do we need a Structure?
We need a structure to enhance and sustain Christ’s mission which is entrusted to us by Him; to further activate the partnership in the Gospel; and guarantee our interdependence as provinces within the Global South, not only provinces, but also dioceses.

To compensate for the current ecclesial deficit, the ecclesial deficit resulting from the undermining of the authority of the bishops and the Primates, who at their consecration made vows in front of God to guard the faith, this was completely undermined. We have to compensate for this through our structure, and hold together and support the faithful within the Anglican Communion, and to avoid further division.

We need a structure to face the challenges together of course. We need a structure not to create another communion as we consider ourselves The Anglican Communion. The others have departed the faith. Not us, so we are the faithful Anglican Communion. By a structure we are not creating a new Anglican Communion, because we are the Anglican Communion.

We need a structure not to compete with the current dysfunctional structure of the Anglican Communion, but to move forward away from the distraction of the current crisis. As I told you in the first story, the fathers went to the desert, not just to sit in stillness, but they were preparing, studying, writing, discipling new leaders for the church, and I think we need to do this, as well; not just to be reactive and to be distracted by this crisis.

[A proposed Global South Structure]
Now this is the simple, very simple structure. The Primates’ Council, or primates’ meeting if we would like to call it like this. And coming out of this primates’ council is the General Assembly, like our general assembly now. And from the General Assembly there are two tracks. [(referring to slides presumably)I am sorry they are not”¦ it will be in the paper you will take after this session]:
Mission and evangelism track and economic empowerment track. [I am sorry that it is not appearing here yet but beside mission and evangelism, there is economic empowerment]. The Steering Committee felt that it is very important to put the Theological Commission directly under the Primates’ Meeting, because the Theological Commission and theological education is so important in shaping the future leaders of the Global South Movement and they need to be accountable all the time to the Primates. And in between meetings, of the Primates’ Meeting and the General Assembly, the Standing Committee, which is the steering committee, we call it, would be there, which is composed of Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer and we added here Communications Officer, because communication is very very important.

Now the functions of the Primates’ Council are:
– discussing and deciding on matters of faith and order. Remember discussing, and DECIDING on matters of faith and order.
– Giving guidelines on the limit of the Anglican diversity in submission of the authority of the Scriptures.
– Appointing, and this is very important for the structure, appointing an ad hoc design group to work on a Global South Constitution.
– Oversight of the Global South Movement in accordance with its stated aims and principles of faith. This involves accepting new member churches and dioceses, and also taking necessary disciplinary actions.
– Calling the General Assembly to meet every three to five years.
– Discernment of consensus behind proposals from the General Assembly and initiation of projects.
– Taking the initiative in restoring unity among us, but also unity in the church world-wide, like starting dialogue with our ecumenical partners.
– Creation of working groups formed in accordance with the developing vision of the Global South Movement ”“ the Primates’ Council can form new groups.
– Promotion of regional bishops’ councils, like CAPA. The Global South would like to promote CAPA.
– And regional initiatives [for] mission.

Functions of the Standing Committee:
– Act on behalf of the Primates’ Council between its meetings and in harmony with its decisions.
– Follow up of matters decided by the Primates’ Council

The function of the General Assembly is to:
– bring together the vision, the concerns and the intervals [?] of all participants under God seeking a common vision.
– Support the Primates’ Council in formation of working groups.
– Receive for approval the reports of the Secretary, Treasurer and working groups.
– Elect an agreed number of representation from among their members to serve on the Primates’ Council.

I want to end by saying two things:

The movement to go further, and go further – we must have a financial commitment. Meetings like this cost quite a lot of money, and provinces need to subscribe and give an annual subscription that can be accumulated so that meetings like this would be funded – the resources, the financial resources.

Archbishop Peter Akinola, from the Third Encounter, after Kuala Lumpur – he said we must OWN the Global South Movement. The first two encounters were supported financially completely by the Anglican Communion Office. But we as the Global South, we said, we must own the movement. For this reason the Third Encounter, and this Encounter, is completely funded by the Global South. So we need to be financially committed to support the meetings and this commitment.

The other thing I want to say: that we need to focus! If we distributed our efforts, and divided again, this will hinder the progress and the moving forwards of the Global South. We have to really focus.

It is easy in this world to divide into groups, but it is difficult, but Paul is saying to us in his Letter to the Ephesians that we have to strive to keep the unity. So we have to strive, and make every effort to keep the unity within the Global South.

Thank you very much for your listening, and I would like to invite Archbishop Kolini to come.

[Applause]