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Report to the Anglican Consultative Council: From The International Anglican Women’s Network - 2002
The International Anglican Women’s Network (IAWN) is pleased to submit this report to the Anglican Consultative Council.
IAWN continues to work toward its goal of linking Anglican women worldwide using regular postal services, including fax, and internet technology.
The IAWN International Coordinator is compiling a list of link people from each Province. A newsletter, published by the IAWN link in Canada, will be sent annually. News from each Province will be requested and will be included in subsequent newsletters.
Linking is also available through the IAWN web site. On the web site is found previous newsletters and reports, and notices of upcoming events. A separate page for each Province will be set up as information is sent to the Web Master.
The web site, www.iawn.org, exists through the generosity of Anglican Internet Services. Our most grateful thanks go to the AIS Web Designer for his time and talent so unstintingly given. We are grateful, too, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend and Right Honorable George Carey, and the Secretary General, the Reverend Canon John Peterson, for their kind words of support.
These means of communication lack one important factor: personal, face to face conversation. Whenever link people are together, enthusiasm for the network rises, organizational details can be worked through, and plans for the future proposed. We thank the Episcopal Church Women of ECUSA (www.episcopalchurch.org/ecw) for inviting international guests to their Triennial Meetings and waiving some of the costs.
As with all members of the Anglican Communion, the Anglican woman works locally and globally. She labours in her own vineyard, meeting her unique challenges with courage and vision, confident in the efficacy of prayer and committed to peace and justice. Her story, when added to those of others, define our agenda: poverty, threat of HIV/AIDS, devastation of environmental disaster, and the horror of war. Women, for whom the global view is an all-encompassing passion, carry these stories to world leaders. Dr. Sally Thompson, of the International Anglican Family Network, often features women’s stories in the IAFN Newsletter.
We congratulate Archdeacon Taimelalagi Fagamalama Tuatolagaloa-Matalavea on her appointment to the Office of UN Observer for the Anglican Communion and thank her for listening to our proposals and supporting them. As finances permit, the IAWN is represented at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meetings. Several were present in 2000 at the Beijing + 5 Prepcom and the UN Special Assembly (see report to ACC Standing Committee, Kanuga, 2001). In 2002 two representatives attended the Status of Women meeting: Marge Christie’s report is attached. At these meetings IAWN worked with ecumenical coalitions and with women of faith coalitions, because the concerns of women often transcend religious boundaries.
Working ecumenically and indeed, with all women of faith, is common throughout the world. We welcome the World Council of Churches Decade to Overcome Violence
( www.wcc-coe.org ) and pledge ourselves to work locally and globally to bring to light cultural and structural roots of violence. We are proud of, and support with prayer, Hanan Ashrawi. She is the Commissioner of Information and Public Policy for the League of Arab States and the Secretary General of Miftah, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy. She is also a member of the Palestinian legislative council.
Anglican women and Lutheran women, have a long history of working together ecumenically. Now those in the USA and Canada are embracing shared communion with joy as a consequence of conversations between ECUSA and the Evangelical Lutheran Church (www.elca.org/wo/) in America, 2000, and between the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (www.elcic.ca/women ), 2001.
Some Anglican women’s conferences of note:
2000, ECW Triennial, Denver, Colorado, USA.
2001, 25th Anniversary of the Ordination of Women, Canada.
2002, Mothers’ Union Presidents’ Conference, South Africa www.themothersunion.org
2002, Anglican Women’s Congress for the Southern Province of Africa.
2002, 10th Anniversary of the Ordination of Women, South Africa.
The first woman ordained a priest in the Anglican Communion, Li Tim-Oi, is remembered by many. The Li Tim-Oi Foundation, Bristol, England, distributes bursaries to women of the Two-Third World who wish to train for leadership positions in the Church. One initiative being pursued in Canada, with the support of the USA and England, is the inclusion or her name in the Church Calendar. As well, her memory will be kept alive in Renison College, the Anglican College of the University of Waterloo in Canada, with the establishment of the Reverend Dr. Florence Li Tim-Oi Reading Room and Archives. ( www.renison.uwaterloo.ca )
The information in this report comes primarily from England, South Africa and North America. It is crucial that a pattern of reporting from IAWN links to the International Coordinator be formulated so that a fuller report can be made to the ACC in the future.
The IAWN thanks the Anglican Consultative Council for including it in the roster of networks.
Respectfully submitted,
The Reverend Canon Alice Medcof,
Link for Canada
Coordinator of Anglican Women’s Network – Canada
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