Primates Weigh Redefinition of the Communion

May 3, 2024 by Jill

by Mark Michael, The Living Church:

Primates representing 31 of the Anglican Communion’s 42 member churches discussed possible changes to the Anglican Communion’s 90-year-old definition, shared stories of mutual struggle, and met with Pope Francis at a Primates Meeting held in Rome April 29-May 3.

Archbishop Justin Welby said that the leaders of nine member churches from the Global South had stayed away for reasons of conscience. This triples the number who absented themselves from the 2022 Primates Meeting in London, likely making this the most unrepresentative gathering since the primates began meeting in 1979.

“It has been a very emotional week,” Welby said at a May 2 press conference, noting that he had been moved to tears by discussion of some of the challenges that fellow primates are facing. “Although we are divided by so much — and I’m talking about culture, language, history, background — one thing we have in common is a profound love for Jesus Christ. That is shared by all of us, regardless of our views on other issues.”

“It has been quite sad that some of the members of our family are not here, for a variety of reasons,” Archbishop Albert Chama of Central Africa. “We feel strongly that as a church, we are a family, and we need to carry one another.”

Read here

Read also: ‘Intense discussions’ as Anglican Primates gather in Rome by Bex Chapman, Evangelicals Now