The biggest international Anglican gathering ever held on these shores has passed a resolution criticising both New Zealand and Australia immigration services for denying visas to some of its delegates – and for “the insulting and degrading manner” in which some of these decisions were communicated.

About 120 Anglican Christians from across the world have been attending the 10-day long Anglican Consultative Council meeting at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell.

The resolution had been drafted by Angharad Parry Jones, of the Anglican Communion Office in London, and by Canon Dr Alyson Barnett-Cowan, who is the Director for Unity, Faith and Order at the Communion office, and who is Canadian.

Their motion was proposed to the ACC by Garth Blake, who is an Australian delegate.

Angharad has often been called upon to make travel arrangements for international Anglican meetings.

And she says these meetings are difficult to set up – because Christians from poorer countries are finding it harder and harder to be there. They struggle to obtain visas.

Throughout the Western world “there is greater scrutiny of people from economically poorer countries, and often a lack of understanding on the part of consular officials that most people in the world do not hold bank accounts.

“These officials frequently act as though they presume that someone from an economically poorer country is lying, and that they have no intention of returning home from an Anglican meeting.”

She is particularly distressed by the manner in which an ACC member from Pakistan was denied a visa by a New Zealand consular official in Dubai.

The refusal letter doubts whether the delegate has enough incentive for returning to Pakistan. It reads, in part:

“You have also provided no evidence of assets, ownership or any other incentives (to return) to your homeland. This along with your reasonably low income and your closing bank account balance of () shows you have limited incentive to return to Pakistan.

“I note you have stated you are married and your partner is not travelling however you have provided no evidence of your wife.”

The point being that the delegate, who is married, and who is, according to Archbishop Sammuel Azariah of Pakistan, “very well off”, had not been asked in his application to produce “evidence of assets”.

New Zealand church officials encouraged the man to reapply for a visa – but he refused to do so, because he felt humiliated.

In Archbishop Azariah’s experience, the officers charged with assessing visas in Western countries “are often interns. They sometimes lack sophistication or maturity, and they can be arrogant – which gives a wrong impression of the country they represent.

“When you come here, for instance, the attitude of most New Zealanders is so beautiful, so accommodating.

'Insufficient guarantee'

Angharad Parry Jones also referred to the case of an African member of the ACC who did obtain a New Zealand visa, and was booked on a flight that was to land in Australia.

“He was going to spend two hours in a secure transit lounge, but he was refused an Australian transit visa.

She said the Archbishop of Canterbury had written to Australian immigration officials to vouch for the delegate’s integrity but was “insufficient guarantee of this person’s legitimacy.”

Staff at the Anglican Communion Office in London were able to reroute this delegate so he didn’t have to pass through Australia.

Such rerouting, however, is usually costly – and the Anglican Communion Office spends large amounts of money not only rerouting Third World delegates, but also paying their travel and accommodation expenses while they seek the necessary travel documentation.

She cites the example of an ACC delegate from Burundi, who had to travel to Nairobi to seek a New Zealand visa – and wait there for his visa application to be processed.

That same delegate then had to travel to Uganda to seek a visa that would allow him to transit through Sydney airport.

The Communications Director of the Anglican Communion, Jan Butter, says he’s concerned that the documentation frustrations are adding burdens to Christians who are at risk in their own societies.

“Being Christian in the developing world is not easy,” he says. “In some places, it can literally be life-threatening.

“By denying these Christians the right to travel, these officials are denying these people support from their brothers and sisters, and inhibiting the church from doing its job.”

Angharad Parry Jones and Canon Dr Barnett-Cowan say most Christian denominations are reporting “increased hassle” in obtaining visas for their members to attend international meetings.

They cite a recent meeting of the Seventh Day Adventist church in Atlanta, for which 80 people were denied visas, and another meeting of the World Communion of Reformed Churches in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for which 73 people, mostly from India and mostly young or female, were denied visas.

They quote, too, remarks made by a Lutheran bishop to a Canadian Lutheran assembly in 2003.

Fifty-three people had been denied visas to attend that meeting – and the host bishop, Raymond Schulz, noted the irony that “capital can move freely (across borders). But people cannot.”