Anglicans: A Test of Our Discipleship

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The 18 branches of the Anglican Communion are proud of their independence — and last week the Anglican Congress in Toronto asked them to surrender some of it. At the close of the ten-day meeting, the delegates took home a dramatic manifesto on "Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence," composed by the Most Rev. Arthur Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the other primates of the Anglican churches. "What we are really asking," the primates wrote, "is the rebirth of the Anglican Communion, which means the death of many old things but —infinitely more — the birth of entirely new relationships."

The manifesto, said the Rt. Rev. Stephen Bayne, executive officer of the Anglican Communion, could be "either the biggest lead balloon or the most dramatic document in our history." It calls upon the Anglican churches to share their financial and human resources for the good of the entire Communion, and specifically to join in raising $15 million within the next five years largely for missionary churches.

Most brambly question for the churches to decide: Should a central authority be empowered to see that these joint undertakings are carried out? Anglican leaders hope that the manifesto will be approved by the individual churches within the next two years.

A specific program of action could then be worked out before the Communion's Lambeth Conference in 1968.

The manifesto is "a test of our discipleship," said the Most Rev. Donald Coggan, Archbishop of York. "Do we or do we not mean business? We must decide what is more important: a posh organ in the church, or literature in Africa, where the sands are running out."