THE review and discussion of proposals to redefine the Anglican Communion and diversify its leadership dominated the five-day meeting of the Inter Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) last month.
The commission, which met in Rome from 7 to 11 December, was following up the report The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals: Renewing the Instruments of the Anglican Communion, published in November 2024 (News, 6 December 2024).
This was the outcome of work by the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), which had been given the task, in 2023, of looking afresh at the Communion’s structure and decision-making in a post-colonial context, and in the light of decades of disagreement over issues such as women’s ordination and human sexuality.
The report acknowledged “the real prospect of the fragmentation, or even dissolution, of the Communion over the coming years if we do not pay urgent attention to matters of ecclesiology”.
The former Bishop of Kensington Dr Graham Tomlin, who chairs IASCUFO, suggested that the proposals would “not solve all the differences in the Anglican Communion, but they do seek to provide a structure within which people of deeply different convictions can remain in good conscience within the Communion.
“They offer an updated definition of the Anglican Communion which celebrates the historic connection to Canterbury, without making ‘full communion’ with Canterbury a requirement for membership. They also suggest diversifying the leadership exercised by the Archbishop of Canterbury within the Communion, involving the Primates of [its] five regions.”
The communiqué from the five-day meeting said: “We pursued our task conscious of the pain of the Communion’s disagreements. We continue to wrestle in hope, determined to advance our work, for the unity of the Communion within this broken and hurting world of which we are inescapably a part, and for the sake of our calling — together with all Christians — to share the good news of Jesus Christ.”
The meeting considered the responses received since the proposals had been published, but also explored supplementary work in preparation for the ACC-19 meeting in Belfast next July: “This included fresh consideration of the collegial ministry of the Archbishop of Canterbury within the Communion. We also reviewed related proposals for amending the ACC constitution. We shall produce additional resources reflecting these evolving developments to our Proposals, which will be published in advance of ACC-19.”
IASCUFO also reviewed the meetings of bilateral and multilateral dialogues and relationships over the past year, spanning the Assyrian, Lutheran, Methodist, Old Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, Orthodox, Pentecostal, and Roman Catholic Churches. It had also been “privileged to attend a Papal audience, at which the Commission’s presence was formally acknowledged, episcopal members were individually introduced to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV and gifts were exchanged”.