(Please note: you can see basic information about this conference there)–KSH.
Toronto: The Archbishop of Canterbury has laid out his vision for a reformed and renewed Anglican Communion during an address delivered last week at Wycliffe College of the University of Toronto.
The Anglican way forward was through a church whose mission and message had a concrete impact on the real world of modern men and women. But this church was not merely a vehicle for good works, but one that took a wholly Christ-centered approach to theology and was grounded entirely in the New Testament.
In an unscripted address via Skype to the “Back to the Anglican Future: The Toronto Congress 1963 and the Future of Global Communion” Conference held on 18 September 2013 Archbishop Welby acknowledged the impact of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ideal of the Church as “Christ existing as community” as his guide.
I’m not impressed.
This was a 8 minute SKYPE link into a conference with CAPA, GS, and Gafcon Primates, and others from Nigeria, SE Asia, Indian Ocean talks, and NA reps, who spoke all day long.
I confess the headline supplied here doesn’t seem to capture that.
The very reason the local Bishop was upset was that the larger set of concerns of the conference did not match his local wishes and concerns.
PS– ‘headline supplied here’ by Anglican Ink, not T19.
Chris,
How was Archbishop Welby’s message generally received by those in the audience? I know 8 minutes is not long, but did you sense genuine congruity with Welby and the other speakers?
#4
I wouldn’t have said +Welby set any particular agenda for the Anglican Communion. He was asked to greet us. The audience was pleased that he did more than that, and spoke energetically and directly. One never knows about SKYPE technology but it worked extremely well. As it transpired, +Mouneer Anis was in the front row and +Welby spotted him at the very beginning and said hello, which made the exchange much more personal. This all came at the end of a very busy and very programmatic day, via talks from +Mouneer, +Eliud Wabukala, +Ntahatouri (GS, Gafcon, CAPA), +Josiah Idowu-Fearon (Kaduna), Radner, +Andrew, and myself. “Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence” was the theme of 1963 Toronto and remains a goal. Above all it was great to have such a wide representation across the Global South. The evening was wrapped up with talks from SE Asia and Indian Ocean.
Thanks Chris. That’s helpful.
Dr. Seitz,
I’m delighted that Wycliffe College sponsored this event and thus called attention to the highly significant Toronto Congress fifty years ago. The vision of worldwide Anglicanism becoming a truly unified family of churches that demonstrate real interdependence and share mutual responsibility for mission in all parts of the globe remains a compelling one, and more important than ever. Not least because TEC and the ACoC have moved so far in the opposite direction, stubbornly refusing to accept any correction from abroad or acknowledge any shared provincial responsibility for the way the [i]missio Dei[/i] is carried out in North America. The results have been catastrophic, as we all know.
Congratulations on bringing together such an outstanding assortment of speakers from around the world. I hope the plenary talks will be made available somehow to a wide audience soon.
David Handy+
Thanks, David. The Cranmer Institute and ACI provided the main funding, and Wycliffe provided the ideal venue, along with St Paul’s Bloor Street, the largest (evangelical) church in the ACofC.
The enormous growth of Christianity in the GS needs attention from those who can offer theological education leadership, and that is something Wycliffe care about. I believe we are the Anglican institution with the largest PhD population in the world. With that comes potential and responsibility both.