What the primate had to say
A conversation with Canada’s highest ranking Anglican
By Doug Koop ChristianWeek staff
WINNIPEG–"What really matters to me is that God loved and loves this world as its author, has come into it in the person of Jesus, and wants it and us to have life," says Archbishop Michael Peers, Primate of the Anglican Church in Canada.
Exalted titles aside, Peers was a congenial shirtsleeves presence at the April 16-19 "Courage to Speak" conference organized by the Decade of Evangelism committee he heads. In a lengthy conversation with ChristianWeek he discussed a range of issues facing the church as Canadian Anglicans prepare for a General Synod this month and bishops from throughout the world get ready to take the pilgrimage to Canterbury for the once-each-decade Lambeth Conference in July.
Peers, who has already served as Canada’s highest ranking Anglican for 12 years, hints that he’d like to hold the position until 2004, when he hits the mandatory retirement age of 70. Although there could be a leadership transition at the General Synod in 2001, the primate cites ecumenical initiatives and a ten-year plan launched in 1995 as projects he would like to see fulfilled in his mandate.
In the meantime he’s been dealing with financial shortfalls and budget crunches, cutbacks that set the tone for the 1995 General Synod where the national church devolved a number of responsibilities to the diocesan and parish levels.
"The hard decisions were really taken in 1994," he says, adding that "since then we have been able to finance what we said we’d do," and noting that budgets have increased slightly over the last three years. "There’s more money in the church than in 1995, but more of it is at the local level."
Paths to God?
More recently, the issue of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of religions has been a hot topic among Anglicans, a debate that heated up considerably following the release last fall of a controversial book, Mansions of the Spirit, by Vancouver bishop Michael Ingham.
"Michael’s book, in spite of the press, is quite clear regarding the uniqueness of Christ," maintains Peers. "We’re not the only people who out of religious tradition are working to make the lives of others richer and fuller."
But he’s not content to leave it at that. "The revelation of God as source of life in Jesus Christ is life-giving in a way that nothing else is. There is a unique claim–‘only begotten.’ There is nobody else. The person of Jesus is unique."
And there is a place to proclaim Christian truth among people of differing faiths. "You start the conversation [about proselytizing] on a footing of equality; you start as an earnest seeker for the sake of truth. From that basis I can say to someone else with integrity what I believe and know. Eventually that should lead to an invitation."
Evangelism is…
Good news should not go unannounced. "Evangelism means there is life and an opportunity for life that does not exist anywhere else," declares Peers. "Not to share that is to decline to do something for one’s neighbors–to tell them that this is a place where I find life."
The primate agrees that believers "must assert" Christian truth claims when they are incongruent with those of other faiths. "Christ’s action is universal–for all." However, we should not "automatically assume that our own perception of God’s purposes can’t be enlarged in encounters with other people. It can be."
As Peers sees it, being "inviting" and developing "inviting communities" is crucial to evangelism. "The gospel really is good news," he insists.
Evangelism, he says, "is a way in which God is glorified, not just obliged." It takes place "when we speak with certainty about who God is and the difference my relationship with Jesus makes."
Movements in the church
Although it often makes his job more difficult, Peers takes pride in the diversity within the Anglican fold. "We tolerate streams," he says, mentioning the charismatic, catholic and evangelical traditions at home within Anglicanism. "They enrich the life of the church."
According to Peers, movements within the life of the church do two important things: create institutions, and "leaven the whole lump." He adamantly rejects the notion that the Anglican Church of Canada is confused about what it really believes, as a recent book (Two Religions–One Church) by concerned evangelical George Eves argues.
"Anglicanism has always had within it as broad a range of emphases as any Christian tradition," says Peers.
As for Lambeth, the Canadian primate does not agree that theologically liberal North American and European bishops will dominate the proceedings with an agenda at odds with the majority of the worldwide communion. "There is diversity in the South as well as the North," he observes.
"I oppose the lining up of forces around issues in advance of Lambeth. That’s not characteristic of Canadian Anglicanism," he states. When asked about controversial American bishop John Spong’s very public letter-writing campaign promoting full acceptance of homosexuality, Peers simply says that he’s "not keen on [anyone] trying to organize from either side."
The spirit of Lambeth, he says, is to seek divine illumination together. Coming with preconceived agendas of any sort defeats the purpose.
