The calm after the storm: What difference does the Anglican Primates Meeting Make?

May 6, 2024 by Jill

by Rebecca Chapman, Evangelicals Now:

The Anglican Primates meeting in Italy is over; the stormy weather warnings in Rome have passed and clear skies are now anticipated. But can the same calm be true of the meeting itself? What happened, and why does it matter to the future of the Anglican Communion?

For the last five days, the senior archbishops, presiding bishops, and moderators of the churches of the Anglican Communion have been meeting in Rome for the 2024 Primates’ Meeting. With a packed schedule, they have had five days of pilgrimage and prayer, culminating in what Archbishop Justin Welby called the ‘climax of the Primates meeting’ – a meeting with Pope Francis.

Their times of prayer, Bible study and pilgrimage to holy sites across Rome was a large part of their time together, as they have traced the footsteps of St Paul. The language of family has been used by many who attended the meeting. From the Archbishop of New Zealand Don Tamihere describing how quickly Primates began ‘acting like they have been brothers and sisters all along’ to the Archbishop of Canterbury noting proudly that it had been ‘a week of family’ and that he had ‘felt the sense of genuine family love’ and Archbishop Albert Chama of Lusaka emphasising that family means we need to ‘carry one another’. Like many family gatherings, there was, of course, also talk of those family members who could sadly not be present ‘for various reasons’. Archbishop Justin noted during the final press conference ‘some members of family absent, which has been very, very grievous to us but they are no less loved for their absence, and no less do we long to see them present and to hear their voices’.

Some of those family members representing the Global South had attended despite the Ash Wednesday agreement. Archbishop Albert Chama explained that some of those attending the Primates Meeting were also going to meet with the Global South in their upcoming gathering in Egypt in June, and his hope is that they are able to ‘encourage our brothers, those who are absent for whatever reason, that the next time they need to come, to see’.

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Read also: What is the big secret in Rome? and Primates 24 – Justin Welby Left Spinning, from Anglican Futures