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[Back to index of June articles] New canon for global justice installed By Jim Naughton Washington National Cathedral has gone global. On May 8, the Rev. John Peterson, former secretary general of the Anglican Communion, was installed as the cathedral's first Canon for Global Justice and Reconciliation. In his new position, Peterson will build the diocese's relationship with the Anglican church in Southern Africa, deepen the diocese's involvement in the Middle East, particularly Jerusalem, and serve as the first director of the Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation, an initiative of Cathedral College president, the Rev. Howard Anderson. Peterson, a native of Minnesota, spent a decade as secretary general of the Communion, providing support and counsel to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), the Primates Meeting, the Lambeth Conference and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The secretary general also functions as one of the Communion's chief diplomats. Peterson accepted the position after 12 years as dean of St. George's College in Jerusalem. "Having a person of John's experience and intelligence, someone who knows all of the key players in the Anglican Communion, and many of the key leaders in governments around the globe is a tremendous opportunity for the cathedral and for the diocese," said Bishop John Bryson Chane, who recruited Peterson. "This is our way of recognizing the interdependence of our world, and the responsibilities that we bear to our brothers and sisters around the globe." Peterson has already traveled to Southern Africa on the diocese's behalf, but his first major undertaking will be a conference of international religious leaders at the cathedral on the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The conference will feature an address by Jeffrey Sachs, the Columbia University economist who is among the leaders of a growing global anti-poverty movement. The primary purpose of the gathering at the cathedral is to produce a statement from some 30 world religious leaders supporting the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. The MDGs are a series of anti-poverty measures that include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and achieving universal primary education by 2015. The statement will be delivered to Kofi Anan, Secretary General of the U.N., when the U.N.'s General Assembly opens its 60th session on Sept. 13, Peterson said. "We are looking for a statement that will be a challenge to the Episcopal Church and to the ecumenical and interfaith communities, but one that will also let heads of state know the strength and support this has," Peterson said. "It is scandalous that it took the U.N. to articulate these goals because it should have been the church all along," he added. "What is being articulated in the MDGs is really the Gospel imperative. The MDGs deal with justice. One of the main concerns of the Gospel is eradicating hunger and people having the full dignity of life. The MDGs put out very clearly those concerns." Religious organizations are uniquely positioned to advocate for the poor, Peterson said. "The church frequently by its very nature might have a radically different perspective than the government, and it is important for the government to hear that perspective," he said. "Frequently, the church has far more grass roots contact in another country than the government might have." However, he added, the role of the church in the nation's capitol is not exclusively a matter of speaking truth to power. "I think the Old Testament structures are important for us to remember: king, prophet, priest," he said. "I think the church is, at its best, prophetic. But there are also times when the church must play its priestly role in relationship to government, to minister to the government in a sacramental way. I think the cathedral has both roles to play, as prophet and priest, where the nation can come together in times of celebration as well as in times of great sadness, but also the prophetic role to call the government back to radical discipleship." In addition to what might be described as ambassadorial work, Peterson has been charged with putting flesh on the bones of Anderson's idea for a center that will serve as a gathering place for scholars, theologians, world religious leaders, politicians and diplomats who must begin the discussions and actions critical to issues of global justice and reconciliation. "I think it is a great idea. It creates a programmatic arm of this cathedral that will endure long after I'm gone. One of my goals is to see that the center is well-endowed," said Peterson, who as secretary general of the Communion was also among the chief fund raisers and principle architects of the Compass Rose Society, founded in 1998 to support the programs and ministries of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the ACC. As Peterson gets used to his new job, he's also getting reacquainted with the United States. He and his wife Kirsten have moved into a condominium in Northwest Washington not far from the cathedral. For the first time in several years, they are on the same continent as their daughters, Emily 22, a senior at Davidson College in North Carolina, and Carrie, 20, a junior at Lynn University in Florida. "What has surprised me the most is how much I did not know of what happened here over the past 22 years," Peterson said. "Having lived in London at the time of 9/11, I did not realize what a traumatic turning point that event was in the life of the United States and how people are living daily with that fear. While I lived in London and certainly while I lived in Jerusalem, there were bombings happening all the time, but the fear one lived with in Jerusalem and London is different that the fear I experience people living with here in the U.S. I think in the United States fear has become a mindset and we are obsessed by it. In London and Jerusalem, the fear was different; it did not paralyze you." Above his desk in his third floor office in the cathedral's administration building, Peterson keeps a photograph of what at first glance looks like a swatch of purple on a green lawn. Closer inspection reveals that it is a group portrait that includes most of the 750 bishops who gathered in Canterbury seven years ago for the 1998 Lambeth Conference. As secretary general of the Communion, Peterson was responsible for "implementing all of the decisions made by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the design group of the conference," he said. The conference demonstrated the reach of global Anglicanism like none before it, but it produced a resolution on the role of gays and lesbians in the church which has been at the center of the controversy that engulfed the Communion after the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada authorized a rite for blessing same sex relationships and the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay bishop. Peterson said he recognized at once that the issue of homosexuality would not be resolved during his tenure with the Communion. Nor does he think it will be resolved within the tenure of his successor the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon of Ireland. "In the Anglican Communion there is enormous diversity," he said. "There is economic diversity. There are many different civilizations, many different societies, and the Communion today is trying to respond to the different issues that diversity raises. "While sexuality is the one that receives the most attention, the issues we are dealing with here in Washington are really the bread and butter issues that the Anglican Communion deals with every single day of its life," he said. "Consequentially, to be distracted from the Gospel imperative is sad, but, on the other hand, I believe there is a strong commitment in the Communion to resolve its problems and by that I do not mean we will all be thinking the same way, but that we will find a way that we will be able to live together." [Back to index of June articles]
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