An allegation has appeared on the Thinking Anglicans web-site that the “Communique of the Global South Primates” is grossly inaccurate and posted without the knowledge of most of the Primates whose names appear on it.  Is someone able to confirm this, one way or another?

The allegation purports to have been posted by a retired bishop of the Church of Melanesia, +Terry Brown.  He says he had a conversation with the Primate of Melanesia, ++Vunagi, who said that the Communique is “a totally specious document”, which was “put on the Global South webpage without the consent of the Primates whose names are attached to it.”

These are very serious allegations.  I note that they are hearsay - +Brown (ret) is reporting statements that he says were made by the Archbishop.  I also note that +Brown is by no means a neutral observer - he has for many years lived in an openly homosexual relationship and is strongly opposed to the traditional teachings of the Global South.  But of course that per se does not mean that he is lying or mistaken.

It will be difficult to check the allegation - communications with the Church of Melanesia and even with the Archbishop are said to be difficult, and email facilities sometimes unavailable.  And this is not the first time we have seen false allegations of this nature - e.g. two years ago claims were made that South Africa and Burundi dissented from the CAPA conference communique, which turned out to be false. 

Nevertheless, +Brown’s allegation is now being copied to other web-sites such as Episcopal Cafe and we really do need to know whether it is accurate, or whether the Global South web-site is in some way inaccurate.  Here is his post, with the links:

“I have asked the Archbishop of Melanesia (who was present at Bangkok) about this “Global South Primates’ Communiqué” and he says he knows nothing about it. He says TEC, same-sex blessings and the Anglican Church of Canada were not even on the agenda or discussed; that the main focus was on mission and resource sharing issues and that in this respect the conference was very good. He says the only statement the Primates signed was a letter to the Crown Appointments Commission asking them to appoint an ABC who could hold the Communion together. Therefore, this “Global South Primates’ Communiqué” is a totally specious document, not discussed or agreed upon by the Primates but put together afterwards by a small group of people (some Primates and their US advisors possibly?) and put on the Global South webpage without the consent of the Primates whose names are attached to it. Notice that those names are only attached as “present” at the meeting and not as agreeing to or signing on to what was written above their names. Most of them do not realize such a statement has been sent out. A similar sort of thing happened after one of the earlier Global South Primates meetings when Primates’ names were added without their permission.”

It can be found at http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/005610.html#comments and http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/anglican_communion/global_south_primates_communiq.html#comments.

Thinking this through further, I can see a couple of inconsistencies that cast real doubt on the accuracy of the post by”“Bishop Terry Brown”.  Consider the following things which +Brown claims that he was told by ++Vunagi when he returned to Melanesia:

1. That “TEC, same-sex blessings and the Anglican Church of Canada were not even on the agenda or discussed” at the Global South meeting. 

Yet +Dan Martins in his blog says that on the Thursday night he and his fellow TEC members made a short presentation to the entire group specifically on the issue of Same Sex Blessings.  And a group from the Anglican Church of Canada did the same!  It is clear that this wasn’t just impromptu - it was part of a session where each of the non-Global South visitors gave a short presentation, to all the representatives.  +Dan Martins writes about the reactions of different groups to the CP bishops’ message.  So it was on the agenda, it was discussed, and not just on the last night. 

2. That “most of the primates do not realise such a statement has been sent out”. 

But how could ++Vunagi know that, if he didn’t know about the statement until he got back to Melanesia and heard about it from +Brown? 

Very curious.

Note that the above points should not be seen as a reflection on ++Vunagi, as we don’t know whether he actually said any of the remarks attributed to him by the poster at Thinking Anglicans who calls himself “Bishop Terry Brown”.  I have some serious questions about that, and I would be interested to hear if anyone else has some answers.

#2 MichaelA - curious, well I expect some ‘clarification’ will be forthcoming and wouldn’t jump to any conclusions yet, in the same way that I don’t see any reason to suppose that the commenter on TA is anyone other then the person he says he is; though it does suggest that communications with Melanesia are not that bad if comments are easily posted by Bishop Brown on TA.

Melanesia is an odd choice to be coopted onto the GS Primates’ Steering Committee, and seems to have responded by chewing the hand that fed them.

Fee fi fo fum - do I smell the blood of a Swanseaman?

PM, I wouldn’t assume anything about the Province of Melanesia at this point.  Assuming this is the “Bishop Terry Brown” who was once Bishop of Malaita, he retired for some years ago, so he does not speak for the diocese or the province.

Given the obvious mistakes in his post, I do not think we should accept the words he puts in the mouth of the Primate of Melanesia, until there is some corroboration from a reliable source.

A new link to follow of an attack from San Fransisco against us!

http://www.postandcourier.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120729/PC1204/120729258/1165/sierra-club-boycotts-episcopal-diocese-over-gay-rights-national-environmental-group-will-stop-using-camp-st-christopher

A statement clarification released by the GS Secretariat:

There have been misleading comments and speculations that Archbishop David Vunagi, Primate of Melanesia, was not consulted about the Global South Primates’ Communiqué released in Bangkok. As a matter of fact, every issue was discussed in the Global South Primates Meeting that took place from 18-20 July before the Communiqué was drafted and adopted. The Primates were presented with copies of the Communiqué for vetting in Bangkok before it was officially released. Archbishop Vunagi has also confirmed in writing that supporting the Communiqué “is not an issue”.

Thank you, Terry.

I am glad that the Global South have moved quickly to scotch this mischievous attack based on the hearsay of a retired bishop.