[Episcopal News Service – Belfast, Northern Ireland] The 19th Anglican Consultative Council, on the final day of its June 28-July 4 meeting here, approved a resolution that affirmed the existing understanding of Anglican identity — leaving the archbishop of Canterbury’s central role unchanged — while calling for further discernment on proposed structural changes to the Anglican Communion. The debate before the July 4 vote underscored the persistence of significant theological differences, particularly on issues of human sexuality, across the Anglican Communion’s 42 autonomous provinces, including The Episcopal Church. The conservative leaders of some provinces describe themselves as in “impaired communion” with the archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England over those differences, raising concerns that some provinces might disengage with the ACC and other major Anglican bodies, known collectively as the Instruments of Communion. Proposed structural changes, known as the Nairobi-Cairo proposals, would have revised the Anglican Communion’s definition, or description, so that member provinces that are now expected to be “in communion with” the office of the archbishop of Canterbury would need to have only a “historical connection” to the office. The proposed changes, developed by an Anglican commission, also offered new ways of sharing leadership across the worldwide provinces, potentially diminishing the archbishop of Canterbury’s role. ACC chose not to adopt any of those proposed changes. Instead, its standing committee drafted a resolution that called for three more years of discernment and conversation. After more than an hour of impassioned, respectful discussion about that resolution and its wording, it was adopted by a large majority. The official count of votes by hand was 72 ACC members supporting the resolution and eight against. The Episcopal Church’s three ACC members voted yes. “This has been a very good conversation,” ACC Chair Maggie Swinson, a lay leader from the Church of England, said before the vote. “A lot of views have been expressed, and a wide range of members have been able to contribute.” The Rev. Berthier Lainirina of the Province of the Indian Ocean spoke in favor of the Nairobi-Cairo proposals earlier in the week. On the final day, he again raised concerns that without such changes his province and other conservative churches might feel they no longer have a place in the Anglican Communion, because of the Church of England’s continued position of authority. The archbishop of Canterbury is both a global Anglican leader and the top cleric in the Church of England, which began allowing blessings of same-sex couples in 2023. “It is very sad that we don’t want to accept the reality” of the Anglican Communion’s divisions, Lainirina said before the July 4 vote. “It is very sad that we suppose that everything is OK when things are not OK.” Other leaders from conservative provinces raised similar concerns but also stressed the importance of remaining together as one Anglican “family,” a metaphor for the Anglican Communion that was used frequently throughout the week. “Come, let us reason together,” Ambrose Otieno Weda, a lay member, said just before the vote. His province, the Anglican Church of Kenya, is often aligned with other conservative provinces from regions known as the Global South. “We should not entertain the idea of walking away, leaving empty chairs, dividing ourselves.” All 42 provinces are allowed to send two or three representatives to ACC, which is the only one of the four Instruments of Communion to give lay leaders equal voice and vote alongside bishops and other clergy. The other Instruments of Communion are the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, the Primates’ Meeting of provincial leaders and the archbishop of Canterbury, whose office is referred to as “a focus for unity” between the provinces. This ACC meeting, held in the Presbyterian Church’s Assembly Buildings Conference Centre in central Belfast, was the first attended by Archbishop Canterbury Sarah Mullally since she officially took office in January and her ceremonial installation in March. The amended resolution adopted by ACC-19 acknowledged the messages of forgiveness and reconciliation that members heard during their July 1 pilgrimage to Derry, a city with a history of sectarian divisions that sits at the border of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, The resolution also invokes Mullally’s own words earlier in the week emphasizing that “lasting unity is built by trust.” “Our present reality is a communion of autonomous churches, identified by full communion with the See of Canterbury, that now experiences the pain of some describing themselves as being in full communion with Canterbury whilst others do not,” the resolution says. An additional clause noted “widespread agreement that communion with the See of Canterbury remains vital to any rearticulation of Anglican identity.” That clause was opposed by some ACC members, who questioned the accuracy of the word “widespread,” but efforts to eliminate that clause failed by a margin of more than two to one. Some members expressed gratitude to Mullally for her remarks to ACC-19 on July 2, when she offered some next steps that could build on the Nairobi-Cairo proposals and the work of ACC members in Belfast. The solutions to doctrinal differences “may not be structural,” but rather “spiritual and relational,” Mullally said, echoing points made by several ACC members. She intends to meet with the Primates’ Standing Committee in September about possible models for sharing leadership across various Anglican provinces, and those conversations would inform the next Primates’ Meeting, which Mullally intends to schedule in early 2027. She also revealed that she is in early discussions to plan a future Lambeth Conference, the gathering of Anglican bishops that typically occurs about once every 10 years. The last was held in 2022 under Mullally’s predecessor, former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. “I am convinced that hope is inviting us forward, and for us to build trust is important, because trust is how we learn to walk together despite our deep differences,” Mullally said. Mullally acknowledged she was in an “interesting” position, as ACC president, to be in […]
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