Episcopal Church’s ACC members see hope in connections made with Anglican leaders

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church’s three representatives to the 19th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council say they are returning to their dioceses with a message of hope from the ACC’s recent meeting after hearing stories of faith and perseverance from other members of the global Anglican “family.”

The ACC, one of the four “Instruments of Communion” that connect the 42 autonomous provinces of the Anglican Communion, met June 28-July 4 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Its meetings, typically held every three years, offer a week of inter-Anglican fellowship, presentations on global Anglican initiatives and discussions and votes on a range of resolutions proposed by Anglican commissions and ACC members.

ACC-19 chose not to adopt structural changes to the Anglican Communion that would have diminished the authority of the archbishop of Canterbury, instead approving a resolution that commits the member provinces to continued dialogue across theological differences, particularly regarding human sexuality.

“I’m going [back] to The Episcopal Church and to my diocese with a great spirit“ about the future, Puerto Rico Bishop Rafael Morales Maldonado told Episcopal News Service during a joint interview in Belfast with the church’s three ACC members. The Rev. Ranjit Mathews, canon to the ordinary of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, and Yvonne O’Neal, a lay leader from the Diocese of New York, also represented The Episcopal Church.

“I recognize that we have a lot of work to do. We need to continue walking together,” Morales said. His interactions with Anglican leaders from other provinces, he said, indicated they shared a desire to “build a culture of understanding” and to “continue building bridges of communication.”

About 100 bishops, other clergy members and lay leaders from 37 provinces attended the meeting, held in a conference hall at the Presbyterian Church’s Assembly Buildings Conference Centre in central Belfast. The members were seated at 17 tables spread across the room, and some of the most meaningful conversations happened within those table groups, Mathews said.

The daily Bible studies that Mathews shared with members at his table resonated in ways that helped the ACC engage in more difficult conversations in other sessions, he said. When he resumes his diocesan duties in Meriden, Connecticut, he said he will carry those conversations with him.

“I am not able to let go of these people that I’ve connected [with] and heard stories from,” Mathews said. Their differing perspectives, including on matters of doctrine, are helpful rather than a hindrance, he added. To connect with them helped him “know more about the Gospel.”

O’Neal agreed. “There is a lot of camaraderie among people, even if we have differing ideas,” she said. “I find that people have a love of the Anglican Communion. … We see it as a family.”

Even so, she felt that “the big elephant in the room isn’t really being addressed.” Leaders from more conservative provinces still hold theological views on same-sex relationships that are far apart from the more progressive stances of The Episcopal Church and some other provinces.

Conservative leaders from the provinces in Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda have refused to participate in this and other Anglican gatherings for years because of their opposition to women’s ordination, gay ordination and same-sex marriage. Other Anglican leaders from conservative provinces have continued to engage with their counterparts in The Episcopal Church and other LGBTQ+-inclusive provinces.

Some ACC members don’t see an option for greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in their contexts, O’Neal said, because of potential negative reactions from their communities in more conservative parts of the world, including Africa, South America and other regions that make up the Global South.

As a matter of doctrine, however, O’Neal said The Episcopal Church still needs to affirm its beliefs, including respect for the dignity of every human. “I don’t see how we can say to our brothers and sisters in Christ, because you’re in a same-sex marriage something is wrong with you,” she said.

The difference between structure and doctrine was mentioned frequently at ACC-19. The Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order, or IASCUFO, introduced potential structural changes in its Nairobi-Cairo proposals, which it developed in response to an earlier resolution approved three years ago by ACC-18.

In one of its two principal proposals, IASCUFO recommended adjusting a nearly century-old description of the Anglican Communion’s membership from provinces “in communion with” the office of the archbishop of Canterbury to provinces with a “historical connection” to that office. The other proposal sought to diversify the leadership structures in the Instruments of Communion, which also include the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops and the Primates’ Meeting of provincial leaders.

During discussion of those proposals, ACC-19 members generally agreed that the proposals were overly focused on structure in response to divisions that were more about doctrinal differences. Rather than act on the structural proposals, ACC passed a resolution that “welcomes a period of further dialogue … that will help rearticulate and develop our Anglican identity.”

Mathews told ENS that separating doctrinal differences from the structural conversations helped focus ACC’s work, acknowledging that some differences of doctrine are not easily reconciled.

“We’re with people who profoundly disagree with us around doctrine, but how can we continue to show up as we are?” he said.

Mathews also attended an informal conversation in Belfast with IASCUFO members about their process for developing the Nairobi-Cairo proposals. He was heartened to hear that the commission members had developed “a deeper understanding” of each other despite some being at opposite ends of the theological spectrum. He thinks that suggests a way forward for the rest of the communion.

Morales gave an example from his table discussions. At the beginning of ACC-19, a member from the Anglican Church of Chile acknowledged to Morales that his province was among a group of conservative provinces unhappy with the Church of England’s prominent role in the Anglican Communion after it allowed blessings of same-sex couples in 2023.

Talk of “impaired communion” between provinces over theological differences has raised the possibility of some leaving the Anglican Communion, but after a week of table discussions, the ACC member from Chile told Morales he was committed to staying, and to continuing the dialogue.

“We learned to accept each other,” Morales said. “This is the work of the Spirit. … This is a sign of hope.”

ACC-19 also heard reports from several other Anglican commissions on a range of topics, from care of creation to ecumenical relations. Some of those reports accompanied resolutions that were adopted by the ACC on July 4, the meeting’s final day.

ACC members were invited to submit additional resolutions for adoption, and among those was a resolution drafted by O’Neal raising awareness of domestic violence and abuse and encouraging provinces to establish commemorations of “Break the Silence Sunday.” She has led similar efforts in the Diocese of New York.

“There is so much violence in the world,” she said. She was pleased that other Anglicans were willing to take the issue seriously.

O’Neal also said she was impressed by the half dozen youth delegates to ACC-19 and their thoughtful perspectives on the topics discussed during the week. “I think that the communion is in good hands when I see what the young people are doing, hearing their opinions,” she said.

The climate crisis was another pressing topic, as the global reach of the Anglican Communion highlighted the disproportionate effects of a warming world in different provinces.

Mathews described a conversation he had with Bishop Shourabh Pholia of the Anglican Church in Bangladesh, where the Southeast Asian country’s 165 million people are highly vulnerable to catastrophic weather events and sea level rise related to climate change.

The conversation underscored for Mathews that “it is important to stay part of the whole” —the connections between provinces across the whole Anglican Communion, including at meetings like the ACC, are important for both Episcopalians in the United States and Anglicans in Bangladesh.

Morales drew a similar conclusion after this ACC meeting, that a strong Anglican Communion is essential for carrying out the work of the Gospel. “In this time, we need to walk together,” he said. “To be alone is not a solution.”

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.