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ANGLICAN BISHOPS
PAGE 5—August 31, 1978
Lambeth Conference Brings New Church Unity
CANTERBURY, England (NC) - The 11th Lambeth
Conference for all Anglican bishops, held at Canterbury,
concluded with the Anglican Communion more united than it
was when it began.
This interpretation was confirmed at a press conference by
Archbishop Donald Coggan of Canterbury, and was borne out
by both the 35 resolutions the conference approved and by the
relaxed and friendly atmosphere in which potentially
contentious issues were discussed.
Of these, the most contentious was the ordination of women,
on which the conference adopted a fairly lengthy resolution
which recognized that the Anglican Communion can live
together in amicable unity despite the differences of practice
and conviction among its 25 member churches over this
question.
In the resolution, adopted by a 316-37 vote with 17
abstentions and some 43 bishops absent from the debate, the
conference declared its acceptance both of those member
churches that ordain women and of those which do not, and
asked each to respect the other’s convictions. But the bishops
rejected an amendment which would have recommended that
the Anglican churches which have not yet ordained women
should not do so for the next five years.
The conference called, however, for the utmost caution
before any Anglican church takes the next logical step and
consecrates a woman bishop. No such decision should be taken,
the conference stated, without consulting the entire Anglican
episcopate through the primates of the various member
churches and without overwhelming support in both the church
and the diocese concerned, “lest the bishop’s office should
become the cause for disunity instead of the focus for unity.”
The bishops also tried to tackle the structural issues the
whole agonizing debate over the ordination of women has
brought to the surface. Involved here is the fact that the last
Lambeth Conference, in 1968, led to the setting up of the
Anglican Consultative Council, whjch was intended to provide a
means of consultation during the 10-year interval between
Lambeth conferences.
But a number of Anglicans have felt that the ACC did not
ANNUAL MEETING
tackle the question of the ordination of women satisfactorily
and indeed made matters worse in 1971 by giving the bishop of
Hong Kong the go-ahead to ordain women by the narrow
margin of 24 votes to 22.
Thus in one resolution the conference advised member
churches “not to take action regarding issues which are of
concern to the whole Anglican Communion without
consultation with a Lambeth Conference or with the episcopate
through the primates’ committee” - a pointed bypassing of the
ACC. It went on to request the primates to initiate a study of
the nature of authority within the Anglican Communion.
Anaylzing this “complex and difficult subject,” Archbishop
Coggan told his fellow bishops that he felt the Anglican
Communion was right to reject placing its center of authority
either in the archbishop of Canterbury or in the Lambeth
Conference or in the Anglican Consultative Council or in an
inter-Anglican doctrinal and theological commission (the
establishment of which, with the label “advisory” firmly
attached, was endorsed later by the conference).
“I do not think there is a quick or easy answer to the
question ‘where authority is found’? ” he said. “Nor do I think it
is of the genius of Anglicanism to define too rigidly, though
there is always, on the part of some of us, a craving for a rigid
neatness.
“But I am coming to believe that the way forward in the
coming years - and it may be a slow process - will be along two
lines,” he added. These would be for all the primates to meet
“reasonably often” - “perhaps as frequently as once in two
years” - for “leisurely thought, prayer and deep consultation,”
and for this primates’ committee to be in the very closest and
most intimate contact with the Anglican Consultative Council.
While the conference recognized that its acceptance of
churches with women priests might disappoint the Catholic,
Orthodox and Old Catholic churches, it warmly endorsed the
work of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International
Commission (ARCIC) and called the three agreed statements
this body has drawn up on the Eucharist, on ministry and
ordination and on authority “a solid achievement... in which
we can recognize the faith of our church.”
Knights View School Tax Credit
NEW ORLEANS (NC) - The Knights
of Columbus reaffirmed their
commitment to a tax-credit plan to aid
parents of non-public school children in
a series of resolutions adopted at the
96th annual meeting of the Supreme
Council, held in New Orleans Aug.
15-17.
Although the U.S. Senate rejected
tax credits for private elementary and
secondary school students in an Aug. 15
vote, the Supreme Council of the 1.3
million member society said this “will
not deter parents from continuing their
support of these schools.”
Other resolutions approved by the
2,000 delegates condemned abortion as
“an unspeakable crime;” deplored the
widespread depiction of violence, crime
and sexual abberation by the media as
normal and accepted ways of life;
restated the organization’s reservations
about the Equal Rights Amendment;
and denounced social injustice,
especially in the Soviet Union.
Messages from Cardinal Jean Villot,
camberlengo (chamberlain) of the Holy
Roman Church and papal secretary of
state under Pope Paul VI, and
Archbishop Jean Jadot, apostolic
delegate in the United States, asked the
Knights to “live Gospel values in your
families and transmit them to your
children with the infectious conviction
of joyful faith.”
Calling on the delegates to “have an
increased realization of their identity
and mission in the church of Christ and
of the urgency of the apostolate to
which they are called,” Cardinal Villot
said the late pope had told the group’s
board of directors in April: “Christ
needs you to bring fraternal concern to
your neighborhoods, to exemplify
justice in your communities, to spread
peace and truth in the world.”
The resolution backing the tax-credit
plan reminded President Jimmy Carter
that his threatened veto of such
legislation “is not in the interests of
better education for American people, is
not in accord with his pledge to assist
private schools to overcome their
economic plight and does not help the
poor and minority families whose
well-being he has proposed to
champion.”
A pro-life resolution said the
Supreme Court failure, in its 1973
abortion decision, to resolve “the
difficult question of when human life
begins was a irresponsible evasion of the
central issue.” This unresolved dispute,
the Knights added, leads to a
“dangerous conclusion that leaves the
right to life subordinate to the power to
destroy it.”
The Knights agreed to join with
other interested citizens and agencies
“to stem the deluge of sex and violence
on TV” and to “express their
displeasure by not purchasing the
products of such sponsors of these
shows.”
In considering the ERA, the
delegates said the amendment “‘has
negative possibilities relative to the
protection of women under certain
circumstances and in other areas of
human rights.” Because of that and the
ERA’s possible effect on pro-life issues,
the Knights voted to continue
opposition to the amendment and urged
“continued study of all ramifications of
this proposed amendment.”
A resolution on the family
emphasized that marriage is a holy state
“intended for procreation of life and
the establishment of a community of
life and love lasting into eternity.” It
called on all members and their spouses
to strive to prepare their children better
to enter the sacrament of matrimony by
their own example and their assistance
to the young.
Supreme Knight Virgil C. Dechant,
re-elected to a three-year term on the
Knights’ board of directors at the
meeting, termed the family the
“seedbed of many religious vocations”
and said “our family life and vocations
initiatives really go hand-in-hand.” He
asked the organization’s 6,358 councils
to sponsor spiritual, apostolic and social
activities for the entire family.
Retired Bishop Charles B. Greco of
Alexandria-Shreveport, La., was
featured speaker at the meeting, relating
his experiences during 60 years of
priesthood. He told the Knights that St.
Frances Xavier Cabrini and Blessed Don
Luigi Guanella strongly influenced his
life and his work for retarded children.
JAWS 3 - A Bronx, N.Y., youngster, watching the athletic competition
at St. Benedict’s Parish Day, puts a bite of his own on a toy shark instead
of the other way around. The annual event on the feast of St. Benedict
invites all people living in the neighborhood to games, dances and
socializing. (NC Photo by Chris Sheridan)
Introducing the resolution, Archbishop Henry McAdoo of
Dublin, Ireland, Anglican co-chairman of ARCIC, said an agreed
statement is a totally new kind of document, born neither of
compromise nor of a desire for calculated ambiguity but of a
rigorous, hard and exhausting process of interrogation and
examination that lasts at least two years and in which no
relevant issue is avoided.
“Ten years’ work will not bridge the gap of four centuries,”
he told the conference, “but it will form a stone in the arch of
the bridge Christians must build if unity is to become a reality.”
On mixed marriages, however, the conference found the
general principles underlying the Catholic position
“unacceptable to Anglicans” and stated firmly: “Equality of
conscience as between partners in respect of all aspects of their
marriage (and in particular with regard to the baptism and
religious upbringing of children) is something to be affirmed
both for its own sake and for the sake of an improved
relationship between the churches.”
The conference’s debate on the Anglican Communion’s
relations with the World Council of Churches centered on the
recent $85,000 grant to the Rhodesian Patriotic Front by a
controversial WCC program to combat racism.
The disquiet several bishops felt over this was allayed by
adding to a resolution urging Anglican churches to reaffirm their
support of the WCC an appeal to Christians everywhere “to
re-examine as a matter of urgency their own attitude toward
and their complicity with violence in its many forms and to take
with the utmost seriousness the question which the teaching of
Jesus places against all violence in human relationships.”
That addition was taken from a strongly worded resolution
on war and violence which described the use of the modem
technology of war as “the most striking example of corporate
sin and the prostitution of God’s gifts” and which also called on
all Christians “to protest in whatever way possible at the
escalation of the sale of armaments of war by the producing
nations to the developing and dependent nations.”
Equally strongly worded was a resolution on human rights
which was originally a statement by the African Anglican
bishops but which was taken over and re-written by the
conference to apply throughout the world.
In its final form the resolution deplored and condemned as
contrary to Christ’s teaching and example the evils of racism
and tribalism, economic exploitation and social injustices,
torture, detention without trial and the taking of human lives -
evils so rampant in some parts of the world, they said, “that
they deter the development of a humane society.”
They called on all governments to uphold human dignity and
to defend human rights, including the exercise of freedom of
speech, movement and worship, the right to be housed, freedom
to work, the right to be educated and the right to eat.
The bishops urged all Anglicans to seek positive ways of
educating themselves about the liberation struggles of peoples in
many parts of the world, and they appealed to all Christians “to
lend their support to those who struggle for human freedom and
who press forward in some places at great personal risk” and not
to abandon them “even if the struggle becomes violent.”
What’s Ahead For School Aid?
WASHINGTON (NC) - Some of the reaction among
Catholics to the Senate’s defeat of a bill to provide tax
credits for tuition paid to private elementary and
secondary schools has been bitter.
But it would be a mistake to conclude that the Senate
vote means Congress has turned its back on private
schools, where 7 5 percent of the students are in Catholic
schools.
On one level, there is some possibility that a credit
will be revived in some form in the House-Senate
conference committee which will work out a
compromise between the House and Senate versions of
the bill; the Senate passed a credit for college tuition,
the House for college and elementary and secondary
school tuition.
At the same time, a number of senators who voted
against the tax credits are still sympathetic to Catholic
and other private schools.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) argued that the tax
credit would just be eaten up by matching tuition
increases, leaving parents with no net benefit. Kennedy
also complained that the tax credit did not help the poor
because it was not refundable - that is, it did not
provide a cash grant for those too poor to pay taxes.
Expectation were raised by the tax credit debate, but
by any other standard, this has been a very good year for
Catholic schools in Congress.
- The Carter administration energy program, if it is
ever passed, includes grants for private schools and
hospitals for energy-conserving construction and
alterations.
- The U.S. Office of Education is in the process of
setting up an office to guarantee that private school
students get their fair share of aid through existing
federal programs for which they are eligible.
- Both the House and Senate have passed and
strengthened Carter administration proposals to improve
delivery of federal aid to eligible private school students.
The bills require that federal spending for a particular
student in a private school be worth the same as
spending for an identical student in a public school.
Private school students are now eligible for Title I of
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act which
provides compensatory reading and mathematics
programs, as well as other programs which provide books
and library materials.
The new bills, which have not yet finished going
through the legislative process, strengthen the procedure
by which the federal government can bypass a local
public school district which is short-changing private
school students and arrange with an outside contractor
to provide the services.
The Carter administration has already moved to use
the existing bypass mechanism in several states.
The new bills would also strengthen private school
participation in bilingual education programs.
- Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.) has added a new title to
the Senate ESEA bill which would authorize $500 for
grants for auxiliary services to private school students.
Pell’s amendment would provide all the services -
such as diagnostic services, bus transportation and so on
- ever held constitutional by the Supreme Court at the
state level and make them available at the federal level
through direct grants to private schools.
The U.S. Catholic Conference has said it cannot
support the Pell amendment because it is
unconstitutional, but Pell’s staff said the USCC did not
offer any suggestions on how to make the bill
constitutional.
Pell tried to win support from other senators during
the tax credit debate; his amendment is part of the
Human Resource Committee’s ESEA bill and it would
take a separate vote to take it out of the bill.
- Finally, there are two more distant, but still
possible, moves that could provide relief for parents of
private school students.
Currently, the Internal Revenue Service does not
allow parents to deduct tuition paid to a church school
as a charitable deduction. Some Catholic school
supporters believe that Supreme Court decisions holding
that church schools are a part of a church should make it
easy to challenge the IRS ruling.
They point out that federal courts recently upheld a
23-year-old Minnesota law which allowed parents to
deduct private elementary and secondary school tuition
and some public school expenses.
If this change were made, it would only help
taxpayers who itemize deductions. But if it were made,
taxpayers who claim the standard deduction could be
helped if Congress ever adopts an amendment offered by
Rep. Joseph Fisher (D-Va.) and Rep. Barber Connable
(R-N.Y.).
That amendment would allow people who use the
standard deduction to deduct charitable contributions
on the short tax form.
In opposing tax credits, Kennedy said, “In the
sensitive area of federal education, Congress ought to be
struggling to find imaginative new ways to meet the
requirements of the Constitution, rather than simply
defying the Supreme Court’s recent decisions or asking
the Court to change its mind.”
There is still plenty of food for thought for Congress
and the Carter administration if they take Kennedy’s
advice.
SOUTH AFRICA
Troubles Viewed By Zulu Chief
WASHINGTON (NC) - The leader of the Zulu tribe in South
Africa, Chief Mntwana Mangosuthu G. Buthelezi, attacked his
country’s policy of apartheid, strict racial segregation, in a
speech at the National Press Club.
The chief is president of Inkatha, the National Cultural
Liberation Movement and chairman of the South African Black
Alliance.
Because of his government post as chief minister of the
Kwazulu “homeland” Buthelezi has been able to speak out
against racism in South Africa with less fear of retribution than
many other black leaders. The South African government plans
to carve out nine “homelands” or tribal enclaves which consist
of only 13 percent of the land area for 70 percent of the
population. Buthelezi and other tribal leaders have rejected
independence for these homelands.
“Apartheid is not simply a matter of race,” Buthelezi said.
“It is fundamentally a matter of the denial of human rights and
human dignity.”
He said the white vulnerability resulting from dependence on
blacks comes from the fact that apartheid and its unequal
distribution of wealth is tied to an economic order which
cannot endure. He added that there is an urgent need to
reinterpret the meaning of free enterprise in South Africa.
Christian churches in South Africa have been caught in the
middle of the conflict between the ruling white minorities and
the growing wave of black nationalism. Catholic bishops in
South Africa have called on Prime Minister John Vorster to
reconsider his country’s policy of apartheid and interreligious
groups in other parts of the world have called for an end to
business ties with South Africa.
Speaking of foreign investment in South Africa Buthelezi
said, “ . . . any investor in South Africa who does not become
part of the struggle for liberation and who does not become part
in a meaningful way so that they are known to the people, only
invests in failure.”
Chief Buthelezi said the truth of the South African situation
must be made clear to everyone who has any financial interest
in the country.
“Civilized hopes have been destroyed in South Africa. They
are trampled on by jackbooted men and they are destroyed by
hard-eyed greedy people maximizing advantages in the midst of
suffering,” he said.
Buthelezi called for a National Convention in South Africa to
abolish apartheid and form a new political and economic order.
He said white South Africa is now vulnerable and that hard
work and astute maneuvering could exploit that vulnerability.