Anglican Consultative Council vote shapes new Anglican Communion Standing Committee

The result of elections to the Standing Committee of the global Anglican Communion of Churches has been announced. The Anglican Communion Standing Committee is the trustee body of the Anglican Consultative Council, one of the Instruments of Communion of the Anglican Communion, a family of 42 autonomous and independent-yet-interdependent national and regional churches in more than 165 countries. 

Earlier this week, Maggie Swinson, a lay canon of England’s Liverpool Cathedral, was elected unopposed as Chair of the Council; and the Anglican / Episcopal Archbishop in Jerusalem, Archbishop Hosam Naoum, was elected unopposed as Vice Chair of the Council. 

Archbishop Hosam’s election created an additional vacancy for ordinary members of the Council, resulting in the need to elect six people from eight nominated candidates. 

The six newly elected members of the Council are: 

• The Right Reverend Mugenyi William Bahemuka
  The Province of the Anglican Church of Congo 

• The Reverend Inamar Correa de Souza
  Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil 

• The Reverend Tsz Leung Billy Ip
  Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui 

• Canon Andrew Khoo Chin Hock
  The Anglican Church of the Province of South East Asia  

• Aishi Sama Drong
  The Church of Bangladesh 

• The Reverend Wendy Scott
  The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia   

The newly elected Chair, Vice Chair and ordinary members join the one remaining Standing Committee member whose term of office continues: Joyce Haji Liundi, a lay representative of the Anglican Church of Tanzania; the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as President of the Anglican Consultative Council; and five primates chosen by their fellow-primates to represent the five Anglican Communion’s regions: 

• Americas
  Archbishop Linda Nicholls
  Archbishop of Canada
• Africa
  Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit
  Archbishop of Kenya
• Middle East and South Asia
  Bishop Azad Marshall
  Moderator of the united Church of Pakistan
• Oceania and East Asia
  Archbishop Philip Richardson
  Primate (Tikanga Pakeha) and Archbishop of the New Zealand dioceses in the Anglican Church of Aoetearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
• Europe
  Archbishop John McDowell
  Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh 

The Reverend Inamar Correa de Souza term extends her term of office on the Standing Committee: she had previously been co-opted to fill a casual vacancy. She will serve until her term as a member of the Anglican Consultative Council comes to an end at the end of ACC-19. 

The new Standing Committee will hold a short meeting this afternoon and are expected to hold their first full meeting at Saint Andrew’s House – the Anglican Communion Office in London – in September.