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[Episcopal News Service] The Anglican Communion may be poised for a reset, at least concerning the archbishop of Canterbury’s leadership role. Two proposals, which will be taken up next year by the Anglican Consultative Council, or ACC, would adjust how the worldwide communion’s 42 autonomous, interdependent provinces relate to each other.  The proposals, if adopted, would de-emphasize the Church of England and the archbishop of Canterbury as a “focus of unity” while elevating more geographically diverse leaders for the global network of Anglican and Episcopal churches. These proposals were developed partly in response to longstanding theological divisions between some of the provinces, and it remains to be seen whether the proposed changes could mend what some conservative bishops have described as their “impaired” communion with provinces like The Episcopal Church that are more progressive on issues of LGBTQ+ inclusion. The underlying goal is to maintain Anglican unity while allowing member provinces to stay true to their theological beliefs when they differ, said Bishop Graham Tomlin, who chairs the Anglican body that drafted the proposals. “It is important to still remain committed to one another,” Tomlin, a Church of England bishop, told Episcopal News Service in a Zoom interview. He said his commission’s proposals “take serious the depths of our divisions but also take serious the call to unity that we find within the Gospel.” Tomlin’s group, the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order, or IASCUFO, issued a 44-page report in December 2024 detailing its Nairobi-Cairo Proposals, named for the cities where they were drafted. The first proposal offers an updated statement of what binds the 42 provinces to each other: “shared inheritance, mutual service, common counsel in conference, and historic connection with the See of Canterbury.” That final principle’s wording differs slightly from the Anglican Communion’s existing definition, which since 1930 has required member churches to be “in communion with the See of Canterbury,” commonly understood as the Church of England. The second proposal seeks to broaden and diversify the leadership of three Anglican Communion bodies known as the “Instruments of Communion” – the ACC, the Primates’ Meeting and the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops. The archbishop of Canterbury is considered a fourth Instrument of Communion. Under these changes, the archbishop of Canterbury would no longer serve as the ACC president; the presidency instead would rotate among leaders from the Anglican Communion’s five regions. The archbishop of Canterbury also traditionally has convened the Primates’ Meeting and Lambeth Conference; those bodies would be newly convened by the Primates’ Standing Committee. Such changes “would add a welcome and overdue diversification to the face of the Instruments of Communion,” the IASCUFO report said. “The leadership of the Communion should look like the Communion.” The report added that Anglican leadership should reflect “the identity and ideals of the Anglican Communion in a post-colonial era.” The Rev. Ranjit Mathews, one of three Episcopal Church representatives to the ACC, told ENS that he sees the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals as a positive step forward in inter-Anglican relations, particularly the acknowledgement that the face of the Anglican Communion is becoming more global than it was a century ago. An increasing number of Anglicans now live in what is known as the Global South – Africa, Asia, South America. “I think the proposals are catching up to the reality of what the communion looks like,” said Mathews, who serves as canon to the ordinary of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. At the same time, many of those Global South provinces are pushing for structural changes to the Anglican Communion because their conservative leaders do not agree with the theology, doctrine and practices of more progressive provinces on human sexuality and other issues. Although most Global South provinces have pressed their objections in person at the ACC, Primates’ Meeting and Lambeth Conference, a few provinces’ bishops have refused for years to participate in any such gatherings attended by leaders of The Episcopal Church and other provinces that have consecrated gay and lesbian bishops and blessed or married same-sex couples. In February 2023, theologically conservative Anglicans amplified their calls for structural changes after the Church of England’s General Synod endorsed a plan to offer same-sex blessings in England’s churches. Days later, the ACC convened its latest meeting in Accra, Ghana. Then-Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, in his opening remarks, responded to the growing tensions by called for greater egalitarianism in how the Anglican Communion’s 42 provinces relate to each other. The Instruments of Communion “have never had either doctrinal or ethical authority, but they have moral force,” Welby said, and he asserted that they continue to offer “the way forward in mutual help where country comes after obedience to God.” Later in the meeting, ACC members from 38 provinces, including The Episcopal Church, adopted a resolution on “good differentiation” that endorsed efforts “to explore theological questions regarding structure and decision-making to help address our differences in the Anglican Communion.” After the ACC concluded its meeting, conservative archbishops issued a letter rejecting the continuation of the archbishop of Canterbury’s historic leadership role in the worldwide communion as the “first among equals.” In opposing the Church of England’s decision on same-sex blessings, they said they would “expeditiously meet, consult and work with other orthodox primates in the Anglican Church across the nations to re-set the Communion on its biblical foundation.” Welby has since resigned over his handling of an unrelated scandal. The challenge of maintaining Anglican Communion unity is likely to remain a top priority when his successor is chosen, a process that is now underway. In the meantime, IASCUFO is preparing its Nairobi-Cairo Proposals for presentation to the ACC at its next meeting, to be hosted by the Church of Ireland in June and July 2026. The commission did not specifically intend its proposals to address the concerns of the Global South bishops, Tomlin said, though the changes may allow all provinces to find ways to stay connected despite their differences. “What we […]

Convo is a tradition that youth and young adults in the Moravian Church have enjoyed since 1957. Held every two years, Convo traditionally rotates between a gathering here in North America for high schoolers and a gathering elsewhere in the Moravian Unity for young adults. Beginning with the 2025 Convo for high schoolers, the Board of World Mission is honored […]

Join us for a church leaders gathering in Dumfries with members of the Evangelical Alliance Scotland team.

Join us for a church leaders gathering in Ayr with members of the Evangelical Alliance Scotland team

For the past several months, I’ve experienced the Moravian Church’s Readings for Holy Week more than a dozen times. Why? Because I’ve been working to finalize an audio version of these traditional Moravian Passion Week services. Jill Bruckart, our customer service assistant here at the IBOC, is also a seasoned musician. She’s an accomplished organist, […]

Join us for a church leaders gathering in Edinburgh (East) with members of the Evangelical Alliance Scotland team

Join us for a church leaders gathering in Edinburgh (West) with members of the Evangelical Alliance Scotland team

We would love to invite you to a church leaders gathering in Glasgow with members of the Evangelical Alliance Scotland team and Peter Lynas

[World Council of Churches] On the 80th anniversary of the execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer for his opposition to Hitler, the moderator of the World Council of Churches has paid tribute to the deep faith of the German theologian, saying his life and witness continue to inspire the ecumenical movement. “The South African resistance against apartheid, for example, was decisively influenced by him. Latin American liberation theology has also repeatedly appealed to him,” said WCC moderator Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. He was speaking on April 7 at an event at the former concentration camp of Flossenbürg in Bavaria where Bonhoeffer and other opponents of Hitler were hanged in the early hours of April 9, 1945. “Central elements of Bonhoeffer’s theology are of significant importance for ecumenical public theology today,” said Bedford-Strohm, mentioning the environmental crisis, bringing an end to violence in Ukraine, and overcoming nationalism and xenophobia.  Read the entire article here.

This Earth Day, we invite you to see God’s beloved world with Easter eyes, to hear the calls of Earth Day with Easter ears, to regard the work of climate justice as Easter work, and to celebrate Easter by renewing your commitment to love the earth.

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