The Anglican Province of Southern Africa did not endorse the communiqué issued at the conclusion of a Sept. 19-22 meeting of primates and leaders from the Global South coalition of Anglican provinces, according to the Most Rev. Njongonkulu Ndungane, primate, who was present for the first two days of the meeting in Kigali, Rwanda.

Among the 16 recommendations contained in the communiqué was one concerning The Episcopal Church which called among other things for the creation of “a separate ecclesiastical structure of the Anglican Communion in the USA.” Although 20 Anglican provinces were represented at the meeting, the final statement was not signed. In a Sept. 24 statement disavowing his endorsement, Archbishop Ndungane chided his brother primates for being “so dominated by an inordinate influence from the United States,” and urged them to “step back from the brink at which the Kigali Communiqué appears to place us.”

“It is certainly the case that we need changes within the life, and structures, and processes of the Anglican Communion,” Archbishop Ndungane wrote. “Yet part of the strength of our heritage is that intrinsic to our life, structures and processes is a considerable flexibility and openness to change that has allowed us to evolve – creating and amending Instruments of Unity (and I am thinking here particularly of the ACC) in response to God’s calling us to be faithful in our mission and ministry to his people and his world.”

During the two days that he was present, Archbishop Ndungane said neither he nor Canon Livingston Ngewu, the other representative from the Province of Southern Africa, “were even aware of the possibility of a communiqué in the name of the Primates of the Global South, prior to its release.” The fact that he was unaware that a communiqué would be published, and its contents, led Archbishop Ndungane to question whether “there is a hidden agenda to which some of us are not privy.”

Archbishop Ndungane’s statement prompted a letter of clarification published on behalf of the Global South Provinces in the Anglican Communion by the Most Rev. John Chew, Primate of Southeast Asia and secretary of the Global South Primates’ steering committee.

The draft agenda, which was sent to all participants including Archbishop Ndungane, clearly stated the intent to develop a communiqué, Archbishop Chew said. Furthermore, development of a communiqué was discussed during the first plenary session at which Archbishop Ndungane was present. Archbishop Chew also commented on the amount of time spent on discussion of The Episcopal Church.

“Careful reading of the agenda and the Kigali communiqué will clearly show that discussions on and responses to the so-called matters of the United States or the ‘North’ took up only a very small portion of time of the whole meeting,” Archbishop Chew said. “Archbishop Ndungane left immediately after the first session of the meeting on 'Update of the previous two Global South Primates Steering Committee Meetings' on Wednesday morning (Sept. 20). He would have been very encouraged and his sentiments dispelled if he had stayed throughout the meeting.”

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