Pastoral Letter cites "severe impairment and fractured relationship in Anglican Communion"
To all Clergy/Pastors/Standing Committee Members
A Pastoral Letter - Primates' Meeting, Belfast [21-25 February 2005]
18th March, 2005
Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ
I greet you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I praise and thank God for your partnership in prayers and fasting that had sustained the recent Primates' Meeting in Belfast from 21st to 25th February 2005. In the midst of a very intense, exhausting and draining week, I deeply sensed and gratefully appreciated the great spiritual support and uplifting because you have all faithfully and earnestly surrounded me and our fellow primates with prayers and fasting. God has honoured and heard your prayers. May I take this opportunity to thank you and join you all in praise and thanksgiving to the Almighty God!
The Communiqué of the Primates' Meeting was crafted by a Committee. As usual, very polite, kind and gracious language have been used to express the common mind and collective wisdom reached by the top spiritual leaders of the Anglican Communion. However, all these polite and gracious words could not hide the plain reality that there is severe impairment and fractured relationship in our Anglican Communion.
Throughout the week, the Primates prayed and worshiped together in Morning and Evening Prayers. The Chaplain of the Archbishop of Armagh celebrated the Eucharist for those who needed it. But this Eucharist was not regarded as part of the official and corporate worship of this Primates' Meeting because many Primates needed to honour the decision of their own Provinces which have broken/fractured Communion with ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada. These Primates could not share the Eucharist with the Primates of ECUSA and Anglican Church of Canada.
Despite the enormous pain and deep hurt felt by many Primates, I praise and thank God for the spiritual quality and leadership of our Primates. Under the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury, they rose above the occasion and clearly re-affirmed and re-endorsed:-
(a) "The central place Anglican accord to the Authority of Scripture", and of "autonomy in Communion" as the balanced exercise of inter-dependence between the 38 Primates and their legitimate Provincial autonomy" .
(b) The 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1:10 as expressing "the standard of Christian teaching on matter of human sexuality" which should command respect as the position overwhelmingly adopted by the Bishops of the Anglican Communion."
Since the Lambeth Conference 1998 and in each of the succeeding Primates' Meetings, the Primates with the Archbishop of Canterbury had again and again warned against any innovation departing from the above position of the Anglican Communion. The most clear and serious warning was given in October 2003. But ECUSA and Canada had blatantly refused to comply with the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates' Meetings. Having given ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada more than sufficient warnings, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates' Meeting, the two instruments of unity in the Anglican Communion, drawing from the clear voice of the Lambeth Conference 1998, another instrument of Unity in the Anglican Communion, have indeed come down with a clear decision in Belfast 2005.
This decision is a loving, wise and firm one. Basically, ECUSA and Canada are both suspended immediately to give them time and space to go through their Canonical and Constitutional procedures to express their desire and will to stay in the Anglican Communion by repentances and reversing what they have unilaterally endorsed and put in place. They have until the Lambeth Conference 2008 to do this. The invitations for their Bishops to attend the next Lambeth Conference depend upon their response to the terms and conditions set by the Windsor Report. The Anglican Consultative Council, the fourth instrument of Unity of the Anglican Communion which has a "legal status' has been requested to make sure this happened.
This is a Godly and wise decision because the Primates in the spirit of loving and the desire to preserve the Anglican Communion in spirit and in truth has called ECUSA and Canada to repentance but at the same time kept the way back to the Anglican Communion opened for ECUSA and Canada. Needless to say, with this decision the Primates also eagerly and earnestly pray that the Holy Spirit will convict the hearts, minds and spirits of the Leaders of these 2 churches and lead them back to the faith that is grounded in Scriptures as a whole and in particular willingly "accept the same teaching on matter of sexual morality as is generally accepted elsewhere in the Communion."
The Primates has also made sure that "Groups in serious theological disputes with their Diocesan Bishops, or Dioceses in dispute with their Province" will be protected through a panel of reference appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Communiqué also made clear that, we are not-homophobic. We continue to love and care for those who are homosexuals and who have the inclination to be one in our society. We are committed not only to listen to them but also to bring them to a living encounter with the Risen Lord Jesus Christ who is our Saviour, Deliverer and Life Giver. Every human being, homosexual included, deserves the best for their life from God to them. They should be challenged to invite the Lord Jesus Christ to enter their life to free them from the power of Sin and the domination of Satan.
The above decisions are very much in line with the recommendations of our Provincial Fellowship of Bishops' Meeting (1 February 2005) and the Provincial Standing Committee Meeting held in early February 2005. I thank God for the clear and strong mandate given to me to work with all Primates who are committed to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Please continue to pray for me, the Archbishop of Canterbury, all the Primates and our Anglican Communion.
This comes with my love, prayers and blessings for all of you during this solemn season of Lent. May I also wish you all a very glorious and blessed Easter!
God bless!
Yours in Christ
The Most Rev Datuk Yong Ping Chung
BISHOP OF SABAH
PRIMATE - PROVINCE OF S E ASIA
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