Indigenous Anglicans will ask the Anglican Consultative Council to make developing indigenous leadership within the Communion a new ‘Mark of Mission.’

The Anglican Indigenous Network (AIN), which met in Sydney late last month, has issued a statement asking the ACC to add that new goal to the five Marks of Mission it already proclaims – and to press national churches to give greater recognition to indigenous Anglicans within their borders.

“We believe it is time,” said the AIN statement, for these national churches “whose borders are based on colonial conquest, to… acknowledge the reality of our existence and the implications (of that) for their ongoing life and governance.”

And the AIN will also press the Anglican Church in Australia to elect and consecrate an Aboriginal bishop with full Episcopal authority within the next 12 months.

In fact, the Diocese of North Queensland already has two Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander bishops. But both are assistant bishops – and the diocese is apparently struggling to pay for them.

The Australian General Synod has set up a committee to review indigenous ministry – and one option being considered is that those positions may be made redundant.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples are resisting that possibility, and the AIN statement backs their point of view:

“Given the crises in our communities and to ensure the survival of Anglicanism in our communities we call, within the next year, for the election and consecration of an Aboriginal bishop with full Episcopal authority and generous funding support to grow and strengthen Aboriginal church communities.”

The AIN has also declared its endorsement of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anglican Council (NATSIAC) “as the indigenous authority for the Anglican Church of Australia…”

It wants the Anglican Church of Australia “to recognise and enable this indigenous authority for all matters related to indigenous mission and ministry in the church.”

Twenty-nine delegates from across Aotearoa, Australia, Hawai’i, and the USA attended the 12^th AIN gathering, which was held at the Collaroy Convention Centre in Sydney from May 18-24.

They spent time discussing their indigenous struggles. Many reported recurring common themes – of violence, alcoholism, lack of education, and the continued failure to achieve cultural recognition.

The delegates also broke into smaller focus groups – of elders, theologians, women, youth, and clergy  –  which explored those issues further. 

“We are indigenous minority peoples living in our own lands,” AIN Secretary General and Native Hawaiian Malcolm Naea Chun reminded the gathering.

“We are committed to the Anglican tradition while affirming our traditional spirituality,” he continued.

“We believe that God is leading the Church to a turning point in its history and that the full partnership of indigenous peoples is essential.

“Therefore, we pledge to work together to exercise our leadership by contributing our vision and gifts to transform the life of the Christian community.”

The gathering marked the end of Mr Chun’s 10 years as AIN Secretary-General. He’s been succeeded by Donna Bomberry, who is from the Cayuga Nation in Canada.

The AIN gathers once every two years, and its next meeting will be in Christchurch in 2013, hosted by Te Pihopatanga o Aotearoa.