Episcopal priest elected to Anglican Consultative Council Standing Committee
The Rev. Ranjit Mathews of The Episcopal Church speaks July 4 from the floor at the Anglican Consultative Council’s final day of its weeklong meeting in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Photo: Neil Turner for ACO
[Episcopal News Service – Belfast, Northern Ireland] The Rev. Ranjit Mathews, one of three Episcopal delegates to the 19th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, was elected July 4 by the Anglican Communion body to its standing committee.
Mathews, canon to the ordinary of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, was one of five ACC members elected on a ballot of 17 candidates. He first attended ACC-18 in Accra, Ghana, in 2023. His service on the standing committee will take him through the end of his term, which will conclude with ACC-20, scheduled for 2029 in North India.
“I am humbled and honored to be elected to serve on the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council,” Mathews said in a written comment to Episcopal News Service. “It’s been some time since we have had an Episcopal Church representative on the standing committee of ACC, and I hope to bring the beauty and breadth of our church’s voice to these forthcoming meetings.”
The Anglican Consultative Council, or ACC, meets about every three years, bringing together up to three representatives from each of the Anglican Communion’s 42 member provinces for a week of inter-Anglican fellowship, presentations on global Anglican initiatives and discussion and votes on a range of resolutions proposed by Anglican commissions and ACC members. ACC-19 met July 28-July 4 in the Presbyterian Church’s Assembly Buildings Conference Centre in central Belfast.
The Episcopal Church’s other two representatives to ACC are Puerto Rico Bishop Rafael Morales Maldonado and Yvonne O’Neal, a lay leader from the Diocese of New York. O’Neal was also on the ballot for the standing committee but was not elected.
The ACC Standing Committee’s 15 members include seven elected members of the ACC, as well as an elected chair and vice chair. The archbishop of Canterbury serves on the standing committee as president, and the five members of the Primates’ Standing Committee also serve as members of the ACC Standing Committee.
