Will it work? I doubt it.<\/p>\n
Fred Hiltz would like the main discussion items at the January Primates\u2019 meeting to be poverty, refugees, and global warming; in other words, temporal items, woes which inspire church enthusiasm of a magnitude overshadowed only by its inability to remedy them.<\/p>\n
As much as Hiltz would like to avoid any discussion of disciplining TEC and the ACoC over their same-sex marriage preoccupation, squirm as he might, I am sure that the GAFCON primates will not let him get away with it.<\/p>\n
From here<\/a>:<\/p>\n A number of primates within the Anglican Communion are pushing for a Primates\u2019 Meeting agenda that \u201creflects not only concerns within the domestic life of the church, but around the urgent issues within our common humanity,\u201d said Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.<\/p>\n Returning from his December 9 meeting with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Hiltz said he was informed by Welby that this particular call \u201cis not coming from just certain parts of the Communion\u2014it\u2019s coming from every part of the Communion.\u201d<\/p>\n While Hiltz acknowledged that issues around same-sex marriages will be an important topic of conversation at the meeting, he said he has encouraged Welby to make sure that the meeting’s agenda tackles important issues affecting the church and the world.<\/p>\n Earlier, Hiltz identified poverty, the global refugee crisis and climate change as key concerns for churches.<\/p>\n In an interview with the Anglican Journal<\/em>, Hiltz said he was pleased with how receptive Welby was to this message. \u201cHe\u2019s very open to that, and he said that a lot of the primates are calling for an agenda that reflects both.\u201d<\/p>\n Hiltz also said that after his meeting with Welby, he came away \u201cencouraged by his [Welby\u2019s] clarity in terms of what the Primates\u2019 Meeting is and what it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n The Primates\u2019 Meeting \u201cis not a decision-making body\u2014it\u2019s a body for people that come together to pray and discuss and discern and offer some guidance. We don\u2019t make resolutions,\u201d Hiltz said.<\/p>\n Since it was announced that Archbishop Foley Beach, the leader of the breakaway Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), would be present for the first part of the meeting, Hiltz said there has been concern in some quarters over whether or not attempts will be made to confront The Episcopal Church (TEC) over its decision this year to allow same-sex marriages. But Hiltz said Welby was quite clear that the meeting would not exclude any of the primates of churches that are members of the Anglican Communion.<\/p>\n \u201cHis principle is one of full inclusion of all the primates. I think he will encourage, and if need be, challenge, the primates to uphold that principle,\u201d Hiltz said.<\/p>\n The meeting\u2014scheduled Jan. 11-16, 2016\u2014will be the first to be hosted by Welby since he was enthroned in 2013. The primates last met in Dublin in 2011, a meeting attended by only 23 or the 38 primates.<\/p>\n Hiltz said he believes part of the difficulty in getting the primates to meet arose from different understandings of the role of the Primates\u2019 Meeting among the other instruments of the Communion. What began as a way for primates to meet for \u201cfriendly conversation\u201d has been pushed in a more disciplinary direction, Hiltz said, which has led to some distorted understandings of how much authority primates actually have over the wider Communion.<\/p>\n \u201cWithin the Communion, as the Primates\u2019 Meeting, we are called to a servant role, in terms of how we speak of, support and model servant leadership in the spirit of God\u2019s mission,\u201d he noted. \u201cWe\u2019re servants of the churches in which we minister\u2026we are called to be servants, not rulers.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Will it work? I doubt it. Fred Hiltz would like the main discussion items at the January Primates\u2019 meeting to be poverty, refugees, and global warming; in other words, temporal items, woes which inspire church enthusiasm of a magnitude overshadowed … Continue reading