Standing Committee & RB17 Sep 08

September 2008 Standing Committee News

16 September 2008

The Standing Committee of the General Synod met in Dublin on 16 September 2008. The Archbishop of Armagh opened the meeting with the appointed reading for the day, Luke 7: 11-17, and the Revd Canon Dr Ian Ellis led in prayer.

Archbishop Harper welcomed the Bishop of Limerick, the Rt Revd Trevor Williams, to his first Standing Committee as bishop.

The Archbishop paid tribute to the work of the late Mr Robin Lewis-Crosby as Lay Canon of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh and congratulated Lady Sheil on her appointment to the position of Lay Canon of the Cathedral.

Honorary Secretaries’ Report

The report of the Honorary Secretaries was adopted.  Canon Ian Ellis confirmed that the General Synod in Armagh would take place on 8-10 May 2009. The Honorary Secretaries are continuing their deliberations on the exact format of the synod and will report further in November.

The Lambeth Conference

The Archbishop of Armagh delivered a report on the Lambeth Conference held in Canterbury, 16 July-3 August, attended by the twelve Church of Ireland bishops. He outlined the Zulu-inspired ‘indaba’ model used which provided an opportunity for the bishops attending to hear each other effectively. He stressed the significance of lasting relationships within the Anglican Communion and the ongoing need to bridge cultural and linguistic barriers. The Archbishop commented on the strength of the Communion lying in being relational rather than confessional or jurisdictional. He highlighted that the conference was not a decision-making one and that the conference document, Lambeth Indaba, was, therefore, not a series of resolutions. Rather, it aimed to capture the thrust of wide-ranging conversations on matters such as mission; climate change and the environment; the Millennium Development Goals; an Anglican Communion Covenant; and human sexuality. He referred to the Bishop of Connor’s specific role in compiling the document as part of the ‘reflections group’.

The Archbishop commended the three Presidential Addresses given by the Archbishop of Canterbury along with important contributions given by guest speakers, particularly the Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, who spoke on the Hebrew understanding of Covenant. The Archbishop also encouraged Standing Committee members to remember in their prayers and bring to the attention of parishes locally the Millennium Development Goals (on poverty, disease and education) and especially the important meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations regarding progress on these goals on 25 September 2008.

The Archbishop expressed the sense of loss to the conference surrounding the absence of those bishops who felt unable to attend. He questioned if there might be merit in shorter but more frequent conferences in the future, which would sustain the relationships built up at Lambeth.

The Bishop of Down and Dromore praised the contribution to the conference made by the ecumenical observers. The Bishop of Connor observed that the conference included a large swathe of commonly held ‘middle ground’ and a feeling by the end of the conference that a Covenant might aid the Communion holding together. The Bishop of Limerick expressed his pleasure in gaining an insight at Lambeth into the immense breadth of the Communion, which should be brought home at parish level.

Draft Anglican Covenant

The Archbishop of Dublin recounted the work at Lambeth on progressing an Anglican Communion Covenant. Archbishop Neill had spoken at two of the five hearings held at the conference on this subject as a member of the Covenant Design Group. The Archbishop will attend a meeting of the Design Group in Singapore from the 19th to the 27th of September, where it will consider the Lambeth Indaba report; the deliberations of the Lambeth sessions on the Covenant; and the replies by bishops to a questionnaire on the issue. Archbishop Neill noted that there is general agreement on the value of a Covenant which articulates the nature of the Communion, but that there was little desire for a juridical covenant.

In the course of discussion on the Covenant and the four instruments of the Anglican Communion – the Archbishop of Canterbury; the Lambeth Conference; the Primates’ Council; and the Anglican Consultative Council – the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory stressed that there were high expectations on the role of the Church of Ireland within the Communion, not least as one of the Celtic churches with a pivotal role in the European context.

Bill Amendment

Standing Committee agreed that a query made by Archdeacon Patterson on Resolution 1 passed at General Synod 2008 be referred to the Legal Advisory Committee. This seeks to clarify whether the proposed declaration, ‘Negative statements towards other Christians should not be seen as representing the spirit of this Church today’ could change the doctrine of the Church of Ireland or affect the Preamble and Declaration prefixed to the Statutes of the Church of Ireland. Archdeacon Patterson’s proposed amendment to the resolution is to be considered by the Bills Committee.

Resolutions

It was agreed that the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, the Rt Revd Michael Burrows, should attend the Meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales at Lampeter, Ceredigion on 17-18 September, on behalf of the Church of Ireland.

Standing Committee agreed to award a grant of €5,000 from the General Synod Royalties Fund for the publication of Dr M. Macourt’s book on the 2006 Irish Census, Counting the People of God.

Standing Committee approved the appointment of Mr Patrick Good as a Director of Church of Ireland Press Ltd.