Episcopal Press and News
Archbishop Coggan Speaks On Anglicanism, Ecumenism
Episcopal News Service. November 21, 1979 [79359]
LONDON -- "The Anglican Communion, in spite of all the differences existing between its Provinces, is a brotherhood whose members share each other's joys and griefs, triumphs and defeats," the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Donald Coggan, said in his last presidential address to the Church of England General Synod Nov. 6.
He was referring to the situation of the Church in Iran and in other parts of the Anglican Communion where Christians are facing serious difficultie "The whole Communion," he said, "have watched with sorrow and sympathy the things that have recently befallen the Bishop in Iran and Mrs. Dehqani-Tafti and the small Christian community in that country. We unite in the hope that the Iranian government will do all in their power to protect minorities and to prevent the recurrence of the kind of incidents which have recently occurred there."
He also reminded the Synod to pray particularly for three Anglican leaders -- Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Archbishop Silvanus Wani of Uganda and Archbishop Elinana Ngalamu of The Sudan -- each of whom is charged with leadership responsibilities in difficult situations.
Archbishop Coggan had two other major themes -- Anglican relations with other churches and the development of synodical government in the Church of England.
He reported that he had spoken at length with Cardinal Hume (Westminster) about the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church to the ordination of women. The Cardinal, he said, has taken the matter up with the Pope and further word is awaited.
The Anglican/Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), he reported, is now working on criticisms of the Authority document together with a theological introduction to the ARCIC Statements on Authority, Eucharist and Ministry. These together with material on the specific question of a Universal Primacy should be completed by January 1981.
The Anglican Consultative Council, he said, has raised the question of the possibility of a unified Anglican response to ARCIC and the Primates' meeting will look at this question in late November.
He reported that the International Dialogue with the Orthodox Churches, interrupted in 1979, would be resumed in 1980. The Orthodox, he said, had requested that further discussion of the ordination of women should be part of the general debate about Ministry.
Dr. Coggan noted that agreement had been reached for dialogue between the Anglican Communion and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and in Europe between the Anglicans and Lutherans and that, despite difficulties, the Church's Council for Covenanting was pressing ahead with plans to present a draft agreement with the Free Churches in England to the July 1981 session of General Synod.
Finally, the Archbishop said that synodical government in the Church of England is "going through a painful period of adolescence." He urged members of Synod to stay close to the spirit of the term "Synod" which is defined as "a way of convergence or of consensus" and warned against inflexible attitudes and party strife.
He also called on the English Church not to become an "inward-looking community pre-occupied with its own life."
"Were we to do so," he concluded, "we should be looked upon by other parts of the Anglican Communion with pity. 'Here,' they would say, 'is the old mother-Church, bound by a system like the nation's parliamentary one, a Church let and hindered from striking out boldly on new paths, neither free nor daring in a new and demanding age.' We should not be the laughing-stock of our sister Provinces -- they are far too loving for that. But we should be in danger of incurring their pity."
In a witty speech when the General Synod paused to honor Dr. Coggan -- whose retirement takes place on Jan. 25, 1980 -- Archbishop Stuart Blanch of York said that the president had spent nearly a year of his life in sessions of the Synod and its predecessor, the Church Assembly.
Dr. Blanch said that during the 30 years of Church leadership, Archbishop Coggan had attended 90 sessions or 360 days -- nearly 12 full months -- in Church House's Assembly Hall.
The Archbishop was presented a check with which to buy rose bushes for his garden, a book inscribed with the names of all contributors, and a standing ovation.
After more than a year of contradictory decisions, the Synod finally made up its mind about the psalter for the Alternative Service Book which is to be published in 1980. Approved was the modern language version published by Collins: The Psalms: A New Translation for Worship, sometimes called "The Collins Psalter" or "The Liturgical Psalter".
The approval of the Liturgical Psalter meant the rejection of the Revised Psalter which had been supported by Archbishop Coggan and Bishop Cerald A. Ellison of London. The Archbishop of York and Professor Douglas Jones of Northern Universities had supported the Liturgical Psalter.