By Carolyn Purden

Primate Andrew Hutchison addresses an audience at St. James' Cathedral on March 16

With an extraordinary degree of openness and candour, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison has described publicly what occurred during the Primates’ meeting held in Northern Ireland, February 20-25. The Primates’ meeting was convened to discuss the Windsor Report, the document released late last year to consider how the Anglican Communion might hold together in the face of deep divisions over homosexuality.

“The Anglican Communion is broken,” the Primate said, admitting that events in Northern Ireland indicated that the Anglican Church is already in schism. “All the signs are there.” He added that he was angry “on many counts” about what happened at the meeting, describing it as “a terrible situation.”

The Primate made his comments at a meeting on March 16 at St. James’ Cathedral in Toronto. He had been asked to discuss the possibility of schism in the Anglican Communion over the issue of homosexuality. Joining him were four panelists: Mary Rowe of Metropolitan Community Church, Thomas Reilly, general secretary of the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Michael Valpy, Globe and Mail religion and ethics editor. Cathedral dean Douglas Stoute acted as moderator. Archbishop Hutchison said he welcomed the opportunity to participate in this face-to-face meeting because so much misinformation had been disseminated in the media.

The Primate painted a picture of deep division at the gathering in Northern Ireland. Among the 38 Primates attending the gathering, a group of about a dozen from the global South shunned the North Americans (Archbishop Hutchison and Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold of the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A.).

These Primates, who were primarily from Africa and Latin America (the Southern Cone), petitioned the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, not to hold a daily eucharist at the gathering. When the eucharist was held with a chaplain presiding, they would not attend. When the Archbishop of Canterbury invited all to attend the final eucharist at which he would preside, they refused to attend.

Panel, from left to right: Mary Rowe, Michael Valpy, the Most Rev. Andrew Hutchison, Thomas J. Reilly, and the Very Rev. Douglas Stoute.

The same group was also involved in leaking information from the Primates’ sessions, which are held  “in camera,” to the media. The final report of the meeting was released a day early because an earlier and erroneous version had appeared in the press.

Archbishop Hutchison spoke with anger and passion about these same bishops who, without notice, suddenly abandoned the Primates’ meeting for an afternoon and evening. “The Archbishop of Canterbury left the chair,” he said. “The Africans had decided to meet off site and had taken others with them.” The 16 bishops remaining had received no prior notice from Archbishop Williams or the General Secretary of the Anglican Communion that this was taking place. “It seemed our agenda was hijacked and put in the hands of others,” the Primate said.

After the Windsor Report was released, the Canadian House of Bishops commended it for study and the Primate requested responses from individuals and groups in dioceses across Canada. A report was prepared from these responses and taken by the Primate to the Northern Ireland meeting. At that meeting, the Primates worked their way through the Windsor Report, section by section.

“Things became very difficult,” Archbishop Hutchison said. Some options were suggested for the future that he characterized as “very bleak” and might have meant that participants “walked away separately." Archbishop Robin Eames, Primate of All Ireland, who had headed the commission producing the Windsor Report, found a solution by elucidating what the two factions needed. 

The global South bishops wanted their voices to be heard and taken seriously, and they wanted action resulting from that. The North America bishops needed to know their constitutional processes were affirmed, respected and honoured — that nothing illegal was done. They also needed to explain how deeply the issue was felt in parts of the Anglican Communion other than the global South.

The Rev. Isaac Kawuki-Mukasa asks the panel a question.

In their final report, the Primates were asked not to intervene in the affairs of other dioceses, and Canada and the United States were asked to agree to a moratorium on same sex-blessings and gay ordinations to the episcopacy. It was also requested that the North American churches not attend the one meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) that takes place between now and the 2008 Lambeth Conference. The decision of whether or not to attend the ACC meeting belongs to the Anglican Church of Canada’s Council of General Synod (COGS), the Primate said.

He spoke about Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone who, the day after the Northern Ireland meeting, met in New Westminster with the dissenting parishes there, “in total disregard of the spirit, if not the substance of our agreement”. The Primate added that Archbishop Venables had not said a word to him about his intentions.
 
“This is crisis, no question,” Archbishop Hutchison said of the Primates’ meeting, “but on the other side of crisis is always an opportunity for new possibilities.”  “One of those possibilities,” he added, “is honesty.” He pointed out that no one at the Primates' meeting admitted to homosexual activity in his province in the face of considerable evidence to the contrary. He called for greater openness in the future.
 
Archbishop Hutchison received a prolonged ovation at the conclusion of his address and then answered questions from the panel and from the floor. In his response, the Primate said he agreed to the final report of the meeting because it created some space for participants to review each other’s positions.

“Anglicans have much more in common than divides them,” he said. Anglicans still look to each other for prayer, partnership and support and he expressed confidence that those relationships will continue. His long-term hope is that the Anglican Communion would survive, “but in the short term, we may have to walk separately from some people.”

The Primate and panel receive applause at the end of the evening.

 At the last Canadian General Synod, the Primate’s Theological Commission was asked to determine whether same-sex blessings are a pastoral or doctrinal issue. In response to a question, the Primate said that if the issue is pastoral, there will be no delay in moving forward with the blessings. “Justice must be done in our time, in our place, in our way,” he said to loud applause. “Freedom to act in conscience is what autonomy is about.”
 
The Primate also acknowledged the difficulty more orthodox Anglicans have with the issue.  He said as Primate, he has an obligation to have a pastoral relationship with all Anglicans, and is committed to talking to traditional Anglicans and ensuring that alternative episcopal oversight is available to them.

The Primate was asked if the voice of North Americans was taken seriously at the meeting. He responded that the dissenting bloc clearly understood what he and Bishop Griswold were saying, but he added, “we were not given the same affirmation of our needs that we were prepared to give them.”
 
In response to a question about the Archbishop of Canterbury’s leadership, the Primate, while praising Archbishop Williams’ intellectual capacity and spiritual depth, said,  “As a leader in a conflicted situation, Archbishop Williams has enormous difficulty. He allowed the meeting to slip beyond his or our control.” The Primate concluded, “Even-handedness is in question at the moment.”

See also:
Primates reflect on move to sanction churches

Niagara bishop responds to issues of division

Six Church of England bishops respond to Primates' meeting

Scotland: Schism threat after Episcopalians accept gays as priests