The Anglican Communion Safe Church Commission

The Commission’s remit is to promote the safety of people within churches of the Anglican Communion – with a particular focus on children, young people and vulnerable adults. It has been set up for three years. Over that time period the Commission will identify safeguarding policies and procedures already in place within the Anglican Communion and develop new international guidelines. These will be presented to the meeting of ACC-17 in Hong Kong in 2019.

The Commission has established working groups in three areas:

• Theology
• Policy
• Liturgy 

The Commission is chaired by senior counsel Garth Blake, a barrister who also chairs the Anglican Church of Australia’s Safe Ministry Commission. The other members of the ACSCC are:

• Revd Sereima Divulavou Lomaloma - Fiji
• Marcel Cesar Pereira - Brazil
• Bishop Cleophas Lunga - Zimbabwe
• Revd Immaculée Nyiransengimana - Rwanda
• Bishop Brian Marajh - South Africa
• Bishop Festus Yeboah-Asuamah - Ghana
• Mary Wells - Canada
• Caroline Venables - England (2017-2018)
• Robin Hammeal-Urban - United States
• Archdeacon Christopher Smith - Wales
• Revd Clare Yoon Sook Ham - Korea
• Canon Andrew Khoo - Malaysia

The commission co-opted Marilyn Redlich, a member of the Safe Ministry Commission of the Anglican Church of Australia, as its facilitator.

The establishment of the Anglican Communion Safe Church Commission was requested in one of four safeguarding resolutions agreed at ACC-16. Its creation builds on the adoption by the ACC-15 of the Charter for the Safety of People within the Churches of the Anglican Communion. 

The ACC also agreed to establish an international procedure for the “disclosure of ministry suitability information” so that priests are unable to move from one province to another to avoid investigation of complaints or concerns.