Southwest grad chairs Anglican Consultative Council

Jun 18, 2009

Southwest graduate reflects on past Lambeths and future of the Anglican Communion

Musing on the current state of the Anglican Communion, the Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga, Class of 1985 and recently-elected chair of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), turned to the words of a song by Bob Dylan to express his hopes. In his iconic song "All Along the Watchtower," Dylan writes "there must be some way out of here ... there's too much confusion ... I can't get no relief ... two riders are approaching ... the wind begins to howl."

"Dylan's words accurately depict how I see the Communion now," said Tengatenga, bishop of Southern Malawi, at St. David's Church in Austin on May 20. Bishop Tengatenga was visiting churches in the Diocese of Texas - a companion diocese with Southern Malawi. St. David's - where the bishop and spouse Josie were married during their seminary years - also is closely affiliated with Southern Malawi.

After reflecting on the Dylan song, he titled one of his recent lectures "Anglican Communion - Anglican Confusion." "There will be some way out of here," Bishop Tengatenga said. "We will find a way out through God."

Bishop Tengatenga will be directly in the mix of things as chair of the ACC, an international group that facilitates the cooperative work of the churches of the Anglican Communion, exchanges information between the provinces and churches and helps to coordinate common action. ACC membership includes one to three clergy, bishop and lay persons from each of the Communion's 38 provinces. It was created in 1968 to facilitate the work of the Anglican Church in the ten years between Lambeth Conferences, as well as bringing clergy and laity more into the decision making process.

Just a few months into his episcopate, Tengatenga attended his first Lambeth in 1998 when the clash over human sexuality was peaking across the oceans. "I was aghast at Bishop John Spong's assertion that Africans were just recently removed from witchcraft," he said. The stormy conference ended with a compromise resolution urging the church to be in dialogue with gay and lesbian persons. "It was a most painful thing to discover two years before Lambeth 2008 that we were still fighting and throwing stones instead of listening to each other. We can't stand across waters and fight. We won't get anywhere that way," the bishop said.

After Lambeth 1998, the Archbishop of Canterbury appointed a group of bishops including Tengatenga to restructure the next conference to allow for better dialogue. The large scale of Lambeth was broken down into small groups wherever possible, Tengatenga explained, allowing bishops to better get to know and work with their colleagues. While two hundred-some bishops did not attend Lambeth 08, more than 650 were there. Only three of the Communion's 38 provinces boycotted the gathering, Tengatenga said. "No one at Lambeth wanted to fight. They just wished to be with each other and showed a willingness to engage each other for the glory of God - not the bishops."

Bishop Tengatenga decried the recent instances of bishops crossing diocesan boundaries in the United States. "You cannot enter another diocese to become ‘Church' because ‘Church' is already there. This is not Anglican ecclesiology, " he said.

"The Anglican Church is a particular gift to God's people throughout the world," he said. Looking ahead, Bishop Tengatenga said "we may well pull ourselves together. We will work out our salvation with fear and trembling but not out of anger."

ABOUT JAMES TENGATENGA - After graduating from Seminary of the Southwest in 1985, Tenatenga returned to Malawi where he was ordained deacon. In addition to parish ministry, he was the diocesan youth worker and diocesan training chaplain. After eight years of parish ministry and training as a youth/community worker in Birmingham, England, he joined the faculty at Zomba Theological College. Bishop Tengatenga, who earned the Ph.D. degree in church and state relations from the University of Malawi, then taught in the department of theology and religious studies at that university until he was consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Southern Malawi in 1998.

Southwest awarded him the honorary doctor of divinity degree one year later. "Deeply committed man of God, distinguished son of the Angoni people ... Your path to our seminary began during senior year of high school in Africa when you turned down a full medical school scholarship to England after experiencing conversion to Christ and a call to the priesthood ... Fluent in seven languages, you are remembered fondly as a keen and personable seminarian who has the heart of a shepherd," read parts of the citation that accompanied the honorary degree.

Spouse Josie Tengatenga is the schools and colleges chaplain for the Diocese of Southern Malawi and has been an active member for three years of the Anglican delegation at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW). She earned the diploma in theology from Zomba Theological College and the master of arts in youth and family ministries from Denver Seminary in Colorado.

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