Boyles named to report reception group

The Archbishop of Canterbury has appointed Archdeacon Jim Boyles, general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada, to a six-member Reception Reference Group that will prepare “an accurate and insightful briefing” on the reactions worldwide to the Windsor Report for the primates of the Anglican Communion scheduled to meet in February.

The group, which will be chaired by Archbishop Peter Kwong, primate of Hong Kong, also includes Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, Bishop John Gladstone of the Church of South India, Bishop Kenneth Price of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA), Bishop James Tengatenga of Southern Malawi and Bishop Tito Zavala of Chile.

Consultations will be wide-ranging. Letters seeking reactions to the Windsor Report will be sent to all provincial secretaries, all chairs of Anglican Communion commissions and networks, all ecumenical partners, all theological education institutions and all mission partners. The group will also contact provincial structures and polling organizations and view Internet postings on the subject “to garner information on the ground level reaction to the proposals of the Windsor Report and recent developments,” said the Archbishop of Canterbury in a statement announcing the formation of the group.

Submissions will be gathered until January 2005, after which it will be analyzed, evaluated and summarized by the group in preparation for the primates’ meeting in Northern Ireland scheduled to begin Feb. 19, 2005.