Anglican Primates Respond to the Windsor Report

On October 18 the Lambeth Commission on Communion issued its report recommending how the Anglican Communion can stay together despite division over biblical authority, church discipline, sexual ethics, and other issues. It now falls to leaders (called primates) of the 38 national Anglican provinces that make up the communion to decide what to do with the Windsor Report’s recommendations, and whether the report adequately addresses the problems.

We will continue to update this chart as more provinces respond.

The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia The Most Revd Whakahuihui Vercoe	No response on its web site
The Anglican Church of Australia The Most Revd Dr Peter Frederick Carnley AO	Carnley (html version).welcomes the Windsor Report as an important contribution to furthering Anglican unity in the face of unilateral actions by certain provinces. The Anglican Covenant included in it has the potential to stand as a “fifth pillar” alongside the other four Instruments of Unity. Carnley will consult with all of Australia’s diocesan bishops so that he can faithfully represent their views on “this important discussion document” at the Primates’ Meeting scheduled for February 2005.
The Church of Bangladesh The Rt Revd Michael S Baroi	No web site
Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil The Most Revd Orlando Santos de Oliveira	No response on its web site.
The Episcopal Church of Burundi The Most Revd Samuel Ndayisenga	No web site.
The Anglican Church of Canada The Most Revd Andrew Sandford Hutchison	Hutchinson finds hope in the fact that the Commission submitted unanimous recommendations in spite of its members’ cultural and theological differences. Their desire to preserve the unity of the diverse Communion and their ability to speak as “one voice” shows that the Church can, with prayer and dialogue, persevere in seeking unity.
The Church of the Province of Central Africa The Most Revd Bernard Amos Malango	Malango, as a member of the Commission, believes the Report offers a genuine way forward for the future. In particular, he is pleased with the real ways it provides to strengthen the Instruments of Unity so that they will be more effective in drawing the member churches into greater interdependence and mutual life. Malango points out the importance of the report’s final paragraph, which recognizes the danger that some members of the Communion may “still choose to walk apart” and that if the Report’s recommendations are not taken seriously, greater division may be the result.
Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America The Most Revd Martin de Jesus Barahona	No web site
Province de L’Eglise Anglicane Du Congo The Most Revd Dr. Dirokpa Balufuga Fidèle	No web site.
The Church of England The Most Revd Rowan Douglas Williams	Williams expresses his immense gratitude to Robin Eames and his team for their hard work. The fact that the Commission was able to produce a report —and a unanimous one at that — is a considerable achievement and a sign of hope. He encourages everyone to study the Report and to pray and reflect on its proposals, because there is plenty to digest and there should be no rush to judgment.
Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui The Most Revd Peter Kwong	No response on its Web site
The Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean The Most Revd Remi Joseph Rabenirina	No web site
The Church of Ireland The Most Revd Robert Henry Alexander Eames	In his foreword to the Windsor Report, Eames (who served as the commission’s chair) recognizes that the divisions in the Communion are deep and can not be easily categorized as “liberal” and “conservative” or “West” and “Global South” since they are also occurring within provinces, dioceses, and parishes. Eames also points out that the strong current expression of divergent positions is so much greater than it was in the controversy surrounding women’s ordination. The lack of charity and harshness of rhetoric on both sides is something “new to Anglicanism.” The Report itself is not a judgment, but part of a process leading to healing and restoration. However, if the Communion is unable to reach a consensus on future “structures for encouraging greater understanding and communion,” then “it is doubtful if the Anglican Communion can continue in its present form.” The real tragedy of all this, he concludes, is the negative consequences it is having on the church’s ability to fulfill its mission to the world. Church Times quotes Eames saying that the Anglican crisis provides the Communion with perhaps its last opportunity to develop something beyond mere “bonds of affection” holding it together. The Windsor Report cannot prevent disintegration but it can help if people are willing to try. In explaining why the commission chose to use regret rather than repent, Eames notes that regret can be used two ways: regret for the action itself or regret for only the consequences of the action. He prefers the latter interpretation because they cannot criticize another province’s legal processes and “Gene Robinson was properly elected.” But, he notes, regret for the consequences of an action should also include regret for having “started it all.” Reconciliation cannot be forced and all parties “must find loving compassion for those they disagree with.”
The Nippon Sei Ko Kai (The Anglican Communion in Japan) The Most Revd James Toru Uno	No response on its web site
The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & The Middle East The Most Revd George Clive Handford	No response on its web site
The Anglican Church of Kenya The Most Revd Benjamin M P Nzimbi	No response on its web site
The Anglican Church of Korea The Most Revd Dr Matthew Chul Bum Chung	No response on its web site
The Church of the Province of Melanesia The Most Revd Sir Ellison Leslie Pogo KBE	No response on its web site
La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico The Most Revd Carlos Touche-Porter	No response on its web site
The Church of the Province of Myanmar (Burma) The Most Revd Samuel San Si Htay	No web site
The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) The Most Revd Peter Jasper Akinola DD	Akinola, who is also chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa, regrets that the Report falls fall short of what is needed in the current crisis. He is particularly unhappy that the report chose to rebuke equally those “who are subverting the faith” and those “who are trying to bring the church back to the Bible.” For the Commission to use “equal language for unequal actions” is a “bewildering imbalance”. Moreover, the call for a moratorium on both sides is unreasonable, given that both Griswold and the bishop of New Westminster have already indicated that they have no intention of halting their course: “They are hell bent on destroying the fabric of our common life and we are told to sit and wait.” The request for the Global South to express regret for their actions Akinola finds “patronizing”, and he states that he and his fellow bishops will not be intimidated and will not “forsake our duty to provide care and protection for those who cry out for our help.” He promises that the report will be presented to the All Africa Bishops Conference meeting in Lagos October 26-31 and that they will have a further statement at that time. Akinola did agree with the Commission in one respect: “The Report rightly observes that if the “call to halt” is ignored “then we shall have to begin to learn to walk apart.”
The Church of North India (United) The Most Revd Zechariah James Terom	No response on its web site
The Church of Pakistan (United) The Rt Revd Dr Alexander John Malik	No web site
The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea The Most Revd James Simon Ayong	No web site
The Episcopal Church in the Philippines The Most Revd Ignacio Capuyan Soliba	No response on its web site
L’Eglise Episcopal au Rwanda The Most Revd Emmanuel Musaba Kolini	No web site
The Scottish Episcopal Church The Most Revd Andrew Bruce Cameron	No response on its web site
Church of the Province of South East Asia The Most Revd Datuk Yong Ping Chung	No web site
The Church of South India (United) The Most Revd Badda Peter Sugandhar	No response on its web site
The Church of the Province of Southern Africa The Most Revd Njongonkulu Winston Hugh Ndungane	Ndungane notes in particular the Report’s balance between autonomy and interdependence, likening it to the Trinity, “an enigmatic community of persons” who enjoy freedom with a relationship of interdependence. Their example of “autonomy-in-communion” should be the model for the church as it works through the Report’s challenging recommendations. Legitimate structural change can only come through due synodical process after the entire church, from the parish level on up, has committed itself to fully consider the Windsor Report. At the same time, this process must not distract the church from its mission of reconciliation and compassion in confronting the many social issues presented by a broken world.
Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America The Most Revd Gregory James Venables	In an interview with the Christian Challenge, Venables said that he was dismayed that the primates were not given the Report ahead of the media, so that they might have time to read it privately and then have a considered response. Moreover, the Report was issued only in English, ignoring the needs of non-English speaking Anglicans. Most of his anger is reserved for the fact that the Report is the result of a system which favors those who “arrange things officially” and “equates those of us who crossed boundaries” in order to help faithful Anglicans “to those who’ve gone against God’s commandments.” The anger over the Report is so great that conservatives may not hold together, but if they do, they will insist that the Primates meeting not have “a western understanding of dialogue” but provide an occasion for the primates to formulate a covenant “which truly reflects the doctrinal beliefs of the majority of the Communion” and which will maintain a biblical Anglican Church. In earlier statements to the media, Venables says the Report gives the church the minimum tools to be able to get things on track, but he is deeply disappointed that the report does not address the real problems. He is “not optimistic” for the future because “the speed with which Frank Griswold’s statement came out indicates that the American Episcopal Church will continue to avoid listening and to push the same agenda which has already split the Communion.” The churches in Canada and the U.S. have expressed regret only for the pain they have caused, “but that is like the adulterous husband saying to his wife: ‘I’m sorry I’ve hurt you.’ It doesn’t deal with the underlying problem.”
The Episcopal Church of the Sudan The Most Revd Joseph Biringi Hassan Marona	No web site
The Anglican Church of Tanzania The Most Revd Donald Leo Mtetemela	No response on its web site
The Church of the Province of Uganda The Most Revd Henry Luke Orombi	No response on its web site
The Episcopal Church in the USA The Most Revd Frank Tracy Griswold	Griswold is concerned that the containment of differences in the service of reconciliation will “do disservice to our mission” unless there is a means of moving beyond containment to a place of acknowledging and making room for those differences. He affirms the contribution of gay and lesbian members to every aspect of the life of the church and in all orders of ministry. Since the Report welcomes ECUSA’s contribution, it is his hope the Episcopal Church’s model of the “diverse center” can be of use in other parts of the communion to foster a spirit of mutual respect and affection. The proposed covenant between provinces should make allowance for the Anglican comprehensiveness of balancing clear boundaries with making room for fresh expressions of the Spirit in a variety of contexts.
The Church in Wales The Most Revd Dr. Barry Cennydd Morgan	Morgan notes that the Commission has successfully fulfilled its appointed task of finding a way for provinces with different understandings of contentious matters to consult the wider communion before making decisions which would impact on the entire church. He underscores the fact that the Report was not intended to address the issue of sexuality, but rather to provide a means of healing and reconciliation for future disagreements within the Communion. The provinces need to study the subtleties of the Report in depth before reacting., because if they do not accept the Report’s recommendations, “the future for the Anglican Communion is indeed bleak.”
The Church of the Province of West Africa The Most Revd Justice Ofei Akrofi	No response on its web site
The Church in the Province of the West Indies The Most Revd Drexel Wellington Gomez	At the press conference announcing the report’s release (video) commission member Gomez said the report indicates that “God has given us the potential to become a great communion within the international Christian fellowship.” The report challenged the Communion to accept communion and mission as two sides of the same coin. The closer we are, he said, the more effective can be our witness to a fractured world. He also said that the report “represents the highest degree of consensus that was attainable” in the commission.