The Listening Process
Welcome to the webpages of the Listening Process within the Anglican Communion.
The content of the pages is the responsibility of the Facilitator for the Listening Process - Revd Canon Phil Groves. On these pages you can find information on the Listening Process, reports on the development of the process from each of the Provinces of the Communion, information on the Study Guide which is being prepared for the Lambeth Conference and some contributions from around the world.
Background Information
The 1998 Lambeth Conference resolution 1.10 committed all the provinces of the Anglican Communion to what is called a ‘listening process’. The resolution recognised that there are people who recognise themselves as having ‘homosexual orientation’ and that that they look to the church for pastoral care, moral direction and God’s transforming power for the living of their lives and the ordering of relationships. The resolution continues: ‘We commit ourselves to listen to the experience of homosexual persons and we wish to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ.’
This statement is made alongside an affirmation of faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union and of abstinence for those who are not called to marriage. The conference also could not advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions.
The Primates’ Meeting of 2005 urged the Anglican Consultative Council, which met later that year, to appoint a facilitator to monitor the work being done, share the results and enable further listening.
The ACC met in Nottingham and passed a resolution calling for the appointment of such a facilitator to establish "a means of monitoring the work done on the subject of human sexuality in the Communion" and to honour the process of mutual listening, including 'listening to the experience of homosexual persons' and the experience of local churches around the world in reflecting on these matters in the light of Scripture, Tradition and Reason.
At their meeting in Dar Es Salaam in 2007 the Primates commended the work of the Facilitator and asked for 'the preparation of material to assist the bishops at 2008 Lambeth Conference'. The present focus of the Facilitator is in producing that material in the form of a Study Guide.
Featured Area: Continuing Indaba and Mutual Listening
The ACC at its recent meeting in Jamaica received a report on the Listening Process and welcomed a proposal for a Continuing Indaba Project urging its implementation as soon as possible. It is a biblically based and mission focussed project designed to develop relationships within the Anglican Communion by drawing upon cultural models of consensus building for mutual action.
- Report to ACC 14.
- Resolution from ACC 14.
- The outline of the Continuing Indaba project.
- The Satcher Health Institute and funding.
