Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion.
Kingston, Jamaica
The 14th Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) will consider requesting member provinces to increase their financial contributions to the Anglican Communion by 10 per cent over a three-year period to cover the cost of inflation.
Briefing ACC delegates on the state of Communion finances, Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, expressed concern that “we’re now operating on low reserves” of £104,000 ($183,000 Cdn).
Mr. Kearon distributed a list of contributions made by each province and urged delegates to look at them. He said “an exceptional increase of 10 per cent” had similarly been requested at the last ACC meeting in 2005, but “frankly, very few gave; money wasn’t forthcoming.”
He said that there had been a number of costs that needed to be covered and that world currency fluctuations haven’t helped improved the ACC’s financial situation. Costs for this ACC meeting alone, he said, total £380,000 ($669,000). He said that extra funding had to be absorbed for things that hadn’t been planned for during the period from 2005 to 2009, including meetings of the Panel of Reference, the Covenant Design Group, and the Windsor Continuation Group. These groups were formed to address difficulties in the Anglican Communion in the aftermath of deep divisions over the issue of sexuality.
Mr. Kearon acknowledged an “extraordinary gift” from the Hong Kong Anglican Church, which wrote off a £500,000 ($881,000) loan that it had extended in 2005 towards the refurbishment of St. Andrew’s House in London, where the Anglican Communion Office is located.
Meanwhile, in other news:
*The lay representative for the Church of South India, J.M. Richard, has gone home after receiving word that his son was killed in a motorcycle accident, Archdeacon Paul Feheley, media relations co-ordinator for the ACC-14, told a press briefing May 6. He said a number of ACC delegates visited Mr. Richard in his room to convey their sympathies and to pray with him.
*ACC delegates approved a resolution from the Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion, which asks that member provinces “identify and support Anglican-related institutions of higher learning in their region.” An amendment was added from the floor, which asked networks “to encourage” and provide advice on the establishment of new institutions of higher education in provinces where none exist.
* ACC delegates also approved a resolution encouraging “schools of theology, seminaries and programs of ministry to develop inter-Anglican courses which involve the study and research of the variety of Anglican contexts, and specifically to include inter-Anglican study projects with students of at least one other very different province.”
