Anglican Communion News Service

DAY 2 – 31 May, 2012

• Anglican Communion officially represented on campaign to end gender-based violence
• The Anglican Alliance to have new governance structure
• Committee gets an overview of proposed ACC-15 programme
• Central Africa invites ACC-16 to meet in its Province.

Day two began with a short presentation by the Revd Terrie Robinson the Anglican Networks Co-ordinator and Women’s Desk Officer on the efforts of the Anglican Communion against gender-based violence, and on her role on the We Will Speak Out coalition. The Standing Committee was united in its agreement that ending violence, particularly against women and children, was a responsibility of the Church. Considering the support for this initiative at the last Lambeth Conference, the 2011 Primates’ Meeting and at the Standing Committee, members agreed that Mrs Robinson should act as a representative of the Anglican Communion on this coalition, and asked that they should receive regular updates on it in the future.

Sally Keeble, Director of the Anglican Alliance – Relief, Development and Advocacy, then gave the committee an overview of its work during the past year-and-a-half, and introduced a report done by an independent company to identify a suitable governance model for the Anglican Alliance. She said it was vital that there was ‘robust’ governance for the future integrity of the Alliance. This was echoed by members of the committee as they considered the five proposed models of governance laid out in the review document. The committee resolved that, in principle, the Alliance would best serve the Anglican Communion by becoming a subsidiary charitable company with board members nominated by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, for appointment by the Standing Committee for an initial period.

The committee then heard a presentation by Stephen Lyon on the proposed structure of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) meeting programme in Auckland, New Zealand. Proposed items on the programme include reports from staff of the Anglican Communion Office on such topics as ecumenical dialogues, communications, the Anglican networks and mission; presentations and discussions around such issues as gender-based violence, the environment, and Christian witness.

Secretary General of the Anglican Communion Canon Kenneth Kearon announced that the bishops of the Church of the Province of Central Africa had invited the ACC to next meet in their Province. This is expected to be in 2015. That offer was accepted by the committee. Canon Kearon went on to report back on the committee’s requested revisions to the Guidelines for the Creation of New Provinces and Dioceses document. The committee also endorsed some proposed Guidelines for Anglican Participants in Ecumenical Dialogues document.

Other issues for the committee included considering a name change of the Evangelism and Church Growth Initiative to Anglican Witness. The committee encouraged the group to settle on Anglican Witness: Evangelism and Church Growth Initiative. They also received a request from the Anglican Communion Environmental Network for an Environmental Network desk officer located at the Anglican Communion Office.

Related News Entries

• 2012 Standing Committee Bulletin - Day 3 (June 1, 2012)