Tuesday, February
13, 2007
UPDATE FROM TANZANIA
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| Above:
The White Sands Resort hotel, where the Primates' Meeting is being held
in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, February 14-19, 2007. (AAC Photo by Canon
David Anderson) |
Reports from the AAC:
- Tuesday, February
13
- Monday, February 12
Latest News:
- Alternate Primates' Meeting
Agenda Proposed by Global South
(a report by the Living Church)
News from
Tanzania: Security Goes Tight Around the White Sands Special Compound
AAC Press Release
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Dar Es Salaam—As
reported late yesterday by some media, the security level around the White
Sands Resort, where the Anglican Primates’ Meeting is being held this week,
has increased rapidly as the resort prepares for the arrival of Archbishop
of Canterbury Rowan Williams. One reporter from the London Telegraph called
the security around the conference center a “ring of steel.” Well, almost.
Whether any of the additional levels of security are because of the presence
of the controversial presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church,
Katharine Jefferts Schori, is hard to tell, because other well-known
primates of the Anglican Communion are also present.
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| Above:
Security at the back gate of the White Sands Resort has been tightened
for this week's Primates' Meeting. (AAC Photo by Canon David Anderson) |
One entire end of the
large resort has been sectioned off into a compound where the rooms are
numbered in the 100s. Poor planning by some of the conference arrangers
resulted in some of the rooms within the block having been already rented by
others staying at the resort, but one presumes that they will have been
moved out as the security lines went up. The rest of the news and advocacy
community are within the resort, but in slightly less posh accommodations
and a bit of a walk from the security lines.
The second and lesser
entrance has been closed except to official Anglican Primates’ Meeting
traffic, and the guards make it clear that without a red security badge from
the Anglican Communion Office, you cannot get in through that gate. At the
other end of the compound, bordering on the main resort offices, desks have
been set up and special guards are positioned together with a supervisor. No
red badge, no entrance, no excuses. Several of the media people in
attendance have already tested the resolve of the guards and believe that no
one will be slipping in uninvited. Bring out the telephoto lenses!
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| Above:
Picture hanging in the Beachcomber Resort hotel, where Global South and
other pre-meetings were being held prior to this week's Primates'
Meeting. (AAC Photo by Canon David Anderson) |
Many of the primates
who arrived early are still housed in the Beachcomber Resort next door but
are scheduled to move over Wednesday morning to their accommodations in the
White Sands. They will leave behind a comforting cross mounted behind glass
in a picture frame hung on the wall in the hallway leading to the rooms. The
picture says, "In Case of Spiritual Crisis, Break Glass." One wonders that
no one has availed themselves yet and broken the glass—but then, the
Primates’ Meeting isn't nearly over yet. In fact, it only officially begins
tomorrow.
The Rev. Canon David Anderson
American Anglican Council, President & CEO
News from
Tanzania:
Primates Already Arriving, Meeting in Dar Es Salaam
AAC Press Release
Monday, February 12, 2007
Dar Es Salaam—It is
Monday morning in Dar Es Salaam, and it will be in the mid-80s (degrees
Fahrenheit) today, with nearly 80 percent humidity and probably some rain.
This is a welcome break from two days of brutal heat and humidity, which
resembles the American Southeast in August. It appears that in the coming
days it will progressively heat up again temperature-wise, perhaps in
parallel with the primates’ meetings themselves.
The Anglican primates
have been arriving in groups, some earlier than others, to attend several
meetings scheduled prior to the general Primates’ Meeting. It is anticipated
that several primates will not arrive, although that is unclear until the
meetings actually start. We have been told that the primate of Wales will
not attend due to a long planned sabbatical, and the primate of North India
will also be absent.
The Archbishop of
Canterbury is arriving somewhat late and will miss some or all of the joint
meeting of the primates and Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative
Council (ACC). With Dr. Williams arriving late, Wales not attending, and a
few others understood not to be coming; it may be that the joint meeting
consists mainly of the Standing Committee of the ACC and Primate Bernard
Malango (Province of Central Africa).
It has been suggested
by some that the reason for the poor showing has to do with a lack of timely
planning on the part of the organizers. The minutes of the last meeting are
said to have not been given to the members in attendance until yesterday,
and there is a difference of memory as to what the minutes should actually
reflect.
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| Above:
The Beachcomber Resort hotel, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. (AAC Photo by
Canon David Anderson) |
The usual contingent
from the news media is present in Dar Es Salaam, including Stephen Bates
from London’s Guardian newspaper, the Rev. Canon Chris Sugden for
Anglican Mainstream, the Rev. Canon David Anderson for the American Anglican
Council’s Encompass publication, and Bishop Martyn Minns and wife
Angela Minns for Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) News.
Prayer intercessors from the United States led by Rose-Marie Edwards are
covering the meetings in prayer, along with other groups off-site. Bishop
Bob Duncan (Pittsburgh) is on location, and other familiar faces from both
sides of the main issues are expected to arrive momentarily.
Meetings of the Global
South primates began Saturday, Feb. 10 in the Beachcomber Resort next door
to the White Sands Resort facilities, and those gatherings have been
followed by a meeting of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA).
The main meetings of the global Anglican primates will shift over to the
White Sands Resort on Tuesday, Feb. 12 (tomorrow).
The Rev. Canon
David Anderson
American Anglican Council, President & CEO
Alternate Primates’ Meeting Agenda
Proposed (by Global South)
Source: The
Living Church
By the Rev. George Conger
February 13, 2007
The dismissal of Presiding Bishop Katharine
Jefferts Schori and Archbishop of York John Sentamu will be among the first
items under discussion in an alternate agenda proposed by the Global South
coalition for the primates’ meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Following two days of meetings at a hotel
near the Tanzanian capital, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria wrote to
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on Feb. 12 setting forth the Global
South’s concerns over the agenda and structure of the Feb. 14-19 meeting of
the leaders of the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion.
While the text and form of the letter, which
was received by Archbishop Williams shortly before he left London for
Tanzania, has not been made public, its contents are understood to follow
upon correspondence between the two church leaders focusing on The Episcopal
Church, the primates’ meeting, the Lambeth Conference of Bishops in 2008,
and the structures of the Communion.
Global South leaders have objected to
Archbishop Williams’ invitation to the Archbishop of York on structural
grounds. Adding a second representative from the Church of England to the
primates’ roster fundamentally alters the office of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, changing his role of primus inter pares to that of an executive
officer, they have argued.
The objections to Archbishop Sentamu come not
to the person of the Ugandan-born archbishop, leaders of the coalition told
a reporter, but to Archbishop Williams’ “fait accompli” of having altered
the primates’ meeting membership without consulting its members.
Archbishop Williams’ position that he has no
choice but to invite Bishop Jefferts Schori in deference to her office as
Presiding Bishop has also received short shrift from the Global South
primates, who have argued that it is improper to place protocol above truth.
The objections laid against Bishop Jefferts Schori’s presence at the meeting
in the Kigali Communiqué and the “Road to Lambeth” paper should be heard and
not prejudged, they argued, according to sources familiar with the
exchanges.
The Global South leaders will ask Archbishop
Williams to adjust the agenda so as to allow an early airing of their
concerns. However, the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, Bishop of the Convocation of
Anglicans in North America, cautioned against speculation on the outcome of
the meeting, noting that the primates were not ideologically driven, but
were seeking to be faithful to God’s will for the church.
He also objected to characterizations of the
Global South meeting as a rival camp to the primates’ meeting, noting the
Global South had accommodations where they could meet for fellowship, prayer
and conversation.
Upon his arrival in Tanzania on Feb. 13,
Archbishop Williams acknowledged the “many challenges and decisions ahead of
us” at an airport press conference, but added that he was confident that
“God’s will [shall] be done and his purposes will be set forward in the days
that lie ahead of us.”
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