• New Communion websites to launch this year
• Anglican Alliance: “We’re not an NGO, we’re Church”
• New guidelines for Anglican Communion Networks
• Anglican Communion Office to review, evaluate Companion Links
• Indaba model being adopted and adapted by the Communion
• Ending gender-based violence: “What will provinces do?”

The day began with a presentation on the work of the Communications Department. Director for Communications Jan Butter said the biggest challenges for the Communion included communicating all the good ministry and mission work of churches above the noise of controversial issues, plus enabling Communion members to connect and talk with one another.

Mr Butter quoted Praxedis Bouwman, a Lutheran: “Communication is a mutual effort to build community. Related to religion, it is a mutual effort to build meaningful community.” Mr Butter said work done to date to try and strengthen the Communion’s “meaningful community” include rebuilding the Anglican Communion’s website, building a new Anglican news website[1]; the appointment of a regional communications officer to support member Churches in Africa; the drawing up of an Anglican theology of Communications; and the relaunch of Anglican World magazine.

Mr Butter also reiterated the need for all member Churches to have at least one qualified provincial communicator to draw Communion news down to dioceses and parishes. He added that projects under consideration included a prayer app for Anglican women and a Social Media-based campaign for young Anglicans on ending violence against women and girls.

Sally Keeble presented on the work of Anglican Alliance, Development, Relief and Advocacy of which she is the director. She highlighted the importance of the regional consultations and local facilitators based in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. She explained how the Alliance works—via capacity building, sharing best practice, networking and developing best practice—and emphasised that it is not a funding body. 

The Alliance work on relief guidelines had made church-to-church giving more effective for emergencies in countries including Malawi and the Philippines. It is also taking forward work around the plight of disabled people living through emergencies. At the global level, Alliance representatives had attended the G20 as a church representatives rather than NGO staff. “That gives us a whole different mandate and allows us to stand out,” she said. The Alliance has also enabled advocacy at local level for Women’s Day, and helped provinces to present to governments on key issues affecting their countries.

The Alliance’s mandate to build capacity has been realised through various projects including the Commonwealth Professional Fellowship Scheme involving education administrators, health administrators and, in 2014, women leaders in education. Participants have come from countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Solomon Islands. The Alliance has also had large numbers of people taking theAgents of Change course—a distance learning course in community development skills with the Open University.

Members of the Standing Committee welcomed Mrs Keeble’s report and asked that, wherever possible, initiatives of the Anglican Alliance should be co-ordinated with other sections of the Communion including its member Churches and the international Networks. 

The Revd Terrie Robinson, the Anglican Communion Networks’ Co-ordinator summarised each Network’s progress to date. Highlights included work on encouraging churches to support families to register the birth of their children; a Safe Church Charter going to all provinces for review and implementation; an initiative for inspiring and strengthening health professionals across the Communion; and further work to support Churches to end violence against women and girls.

The committee wholeheartedly supported the Networks and the work of the Networks’ Co-ordinator, and looked forward to some ‘fresh thinking’ from a few of the Networks.

Mrs Robinson went on to explain that a working group reviewed the Network guidelines from 1996 and had proposed new ones. These comprised definitions of Networks, their formation, their accountability, membership, leadership and succession, communication, and, if required, closure. With some minor amendments, these guidelines were endorsed by the committee.

During Monday’s meeting, the Standing Committee were also asked to elect one of the Anglican Communion primates to serve on the Church of England’s Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) were there a need to appointment a new Archbishop of Canterbury. Electing a primate to serve in this capacity will happen annually.

The committee elected an Archbishop from an African province, with a second African primate also elected in case the first is unable to serve when called upon. The names of those elected will be released after they have been informed.

The Revd John Kafwanka, Director for Mission, explained that the ACO’s Mission Department “adds value to the mission of the Anglican Communion, by doing what can not otherwise be done via the provinces.” This includes fostering mutual collaboration, learning and sharing across the world, and by focusing on holistic mission through the lens of the Marks of Mission of the Anglican Communion. He explained that the ACC-mandated Anglican Witness: Evangelism and Church Growth Initiative aims to share the best of the local work around the Communion through a newsletter and a Facebook page with hundreds of users.

A major new initiative of the Initiative’s global core group will be to focus on children and young people across the Communion. They are looking, not only to promote ministry with and by young people, but also to establish a youth wing of the project with an annual prize for best practice in evangelism and church growth. Another major focus of the Initiative will be considering how best to support Anglicans and Episcopalians in their journey of discipleship.

Mr Kafwanka also said the ACO would be reviewing existing companion links to identify best practice and resources. These would be made available to strengthen existing links, and to guide dioceses and parishes considering forming new companion relationships. This sparked a conversation about the challenge of both the Church’s relationship with young people and with immigrant populations.

Presenting on Continuing Indaba, the Revd Dr Phil Groves said it had been birthed out of disputes, but had now moved on to where people were genuinely considering the different cultures and different understanding of the scriptures that emerged. “What excites us is that these conversations of difference lead on to greater mission in the life of the church.”

He stressed that, though the original project involved inter-Provincial groupings, the Indaba model did not have to be transcontinental, but rather something that all levels of church life and structures can benefit from. One example of this comes from Saldanha Bay in Southern Africa, where Indaba is gradually becoming integral to the life of the diocese there, with “all voices having an equal say”.

Dr Groves added that there were other provinces and dioceses who were already reviewing their official procedures in the light of the Indaba model.

The day’s meeting concluded with a presentation by the Revd Terrie Robinson on ACC resolution 15.07 on gender-based and domestic violence. She challenged the committee to consider what needs to happen in their provinces to address this issue. One suggestion included working with existing initiatives such as the White Ribbon Campaign, the global movement to ensure men take more responsibility for reducing the level of violence against women.

[1] Both are due by the end of the year