Theological Education for the Anglican Communion: The Promises and Challenges of TEAC

Anglican Theological Review, Spring 2008 by Scully, J Eileen

Archbishop Rowan Williams has spoken often and strongly of the high priority theological education ought to have in the Anglican Communion. The assignment of such a place within a province's set of priorities finds its meaning in its very concrete local commitments, engagement with local contexts, the setting of standards, and the provision of resources. Setting such a priority for the life of the Anglican Communion as a whole means including and extending particular provincial concerns into the international forum. With that extension come the particular challenges inherent in any Communion-wide discussion. Within and across our diversities, do we have common language, meaning, and vision about what theological education is, or about Anglican ways of doing ministry, mission, and theological education?

The vehicle set up to begin the Communion-level work on theological education is the Primates' Working Party Theological Education for the Anglican Communion (TEAC). TEAC is one particular initiative, begun in and responsible to the meeting of Primates, around which has grown a Theological Studies department within the Communion office, committed beyond the work of TEAC to sharing information and developing extensive web-based resources. Records of the origins and program content of TEAC are readily available on the Communion website,1 where one can find not only reports, but also working briefs and other background information. TEAC and the staff are to be commended for their commitment to uphold transparency and consultation as high values and for the encouragement of conversation with their work.

My own involvement with TEAC has not been from within the working party, but from the perspective of a national (provincial) staff person with responsibilities for theological education within the Anglican Church of Canada. Receiving the fruits of TEAC's labors, particularly the outcomes-based grids for ordered and lay ministries, has been helpful in beginning conversations about the ways in which we might approach a new phase in shaping expectations and competencies for ministries in our own province. In the pages that follow I shall offer an overview of the development of TEAC, an introduction to their achievements to date, and the beginning of a critical and creative engagement with the process and content of their work. That content includes TEAC s statements of aims and objectives; their outcomes-based analyses of theological education (grids); and the 2007 Singapore Statement "The Anglican Way: Signposts on a Common Journey." One member of TEAC has said recently that their work is now off the ground and they hope to see that it doesn't merely circle around the airport but actually goes somewhere.2 The critical engagement offered here is intended to serve that journey.

The Origins of TEAC

A preliminary working party on theological education was mandated at the 2001 meeting of the Primates at Kanuga, North Carolina. The 2002 meeting of Primates reestablished a working party, but it was not until 2003 that the work of TEAC began to take shape under that name and with a Chair and Secretariat established. Archbishop Gregory Venables, the Chair of TEAC, and Clare Amos, Communion Office staff, report the strong commitment of the Primates to theological education.3 In fact, programmatically, TEAC seems to have been something of a unique creation of the meeting of Primates.4

TEAC is difficult to classify within the structures of the Communion. It is neither a formal commission of the Communion nor one of the official networks; it is still referred to as a "working party." The fullest meeting associated with TEAC, in Johannesburg in 2006, included representatives of almost every province of the Communion. Their work built on the substantial and far-reaching preparatory work of those who developed briefs for each major area of work (Bishops; Priests and Transitional Deacons; Vocational Deacons, Catechists, and Licensed Lay Ministers; Laity; the Anglican Way). Membership did not follow a pattern of provincial nomination or representation, but more the pattern of Communion commissions, with appointment based on expertise as determined by the leadership of the working party. TEAC has reported to and led consultations with the Primates' meetings each year since 2002, presenting its fullest report to the Joint Standing Committee of the Primates and the Anglican Consultative Council in 2006. But just where it sits within the Communion's organizational structure is at present unclear. Perhaps this reflects the reality that a programmatic focus on theological education at the Communion level is a relatively new and organizationally evolutionary reality. TEACs 2006 report emphasizes that theirs is very much a work in progress. It suggests the creation of a network of provincially-appointed theological education officers related to each other through TEAC and, eventually, a permanent commission on theological education.

The evolution of TEAC from a small working party of the Primates' meeting to a commission of more than thirty-five members plus staffing5 has been fuelled by the energy of the Primates, who have continued to endorse TEAC's project. Much has been said about the leadership of Archbishop Williams in helping to set theological education as a high priority in the life of the Communion.6 Communion-level work in theological education was initiated in 2001, before Williams's appointment. However, his personal commitment and passion for theological education at all levels of the church has helped to focus the effort and give it priority, funding, and resources. The Nottingham meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in 2005 gave further encouragement. There is a general view that healthy theological education is vital to the life of the church.