from ACNS
The Anglican Consultative Council has affirmed the need for “relationships and trust to grow” when it comes to discerning the Anglican Communion’s structures and life together. Receiving the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals as resources for “continuing discernment”, the 19th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC-19) passed a resolution today calling for further dialogue across the Anglican Communion over the next three years.
Earlier this week, the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals were presented to ACC-19 by IASCUFO, the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order. The ACC-19 meeting has discussed the proposals as part of its wide-ranging agenda in Belfast this week.
Welcoming the “vitality of discussion and respectful debate” about the proposals, ACC members reflected that walking together requires prayer, study of Scripture, dialogue and structures that “encourage relationships and trust to grow”.
The resolution affirms the present reality of the Anglican Communion – a Communion of autonomous churches identified by full communion with the See of Canterbury, which “now experiences the pain of some describing themselves as being in full communion with Canterbury whilst others do not, and seeks together to receive again God’s gift of full communion as one family.”
While rejoicing that all God’s people “are called to one hope”, the resolution acknowledges that “our present divisions in the Anglican Communion are partly caused by disagreements about the ‘one faith’” (Ephesians 4:4-6).
The ACC members requested some next steps, which include welcoming the Archbishop of Canterbury’s intention to call a Primates’ Meeting to consider collaborative ways of working; and a period of further dialogue across the Communion to help rearticulate and develop Anglican identity, including the relationship between the Instruments of Communion.
The resolution notes widespread agreement at ACC-19 that communion with the See of Canterbury “remains vital to any rearticulation of Anglican identity.”