The Archbishop of Canterbury was the celebrant at a closing Eucharist for the Anglican Consultative Meeting (ACC-14) in Kingston Jamaica. The Eucharist was held at The Cathedral of St. James in Spanish Town- the oldest Cathedral in the British Caribbean.
Final Resolutions of ACC-14
On this last day of the Anglican Consultative Meeting (ACC-14) the delegates focused on final resolutions and the messages they will take back to their provinces. After a discussion in their discernment groups a closing plenary session was held with the members presenting positive and challenging insights from the meetings.
During the meeting of ACC 14 in Kingston, Jamaica a new Vice Chair and four new members for the Joint Standing Committee were elected. They will join new Chair Bishop James Tengatenga (Central Africa), Mrs Philippa Amable (West Africa), Bishop Kumara Illangasinghe (Ceylon) and Ms Nomfundo Walaza (South Africa).
If you look on the Anglican Communion Office staff list you will see the name The Revd Terrie Robinson not once, not twice but three times. She is the women’s desk officer, the translation co-ordinator and the Anglican Communion Networks Co-ordinator.
Sometimes concerns arise in the life of the Church and we tend to think that it is a brand new issue for the Anglican Communion. Questions around the integrity of the environment may feel relatively new but in fact it was the sixth meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council meeting twenty – five years ago in Badagry Nigeria (1984) Anglican concern led to the formation of The Anglican Communion Environmental Network.
On the eve of the closing of the Anglican Consultative Council 14 meeting in Kingston, Jamaica the Archbishop Of Canterbury delivered his presidential address. The Council has a chair and the Archbishop functions as the president. The address came after the evening worship and was followed by an opportunity to express thanks to Bishop John Paterson who retires as the chair at the end of this meeting,
The Anglican Consultative Council is moving into its last few days of meetings. On Sunday all of the delegates were sent in teams of three or four to every parish on the island of Jamaica- in some cases to celebrate and preach and in all cases to engage in conversations about mission and the opportunities to share the gospel.
The word family evokes a wide range of emotions. For some it is a very loving and supportive word that is the centre of their being. For others it is a place of distance anxiety and frustration with people who are closely related failing to talk or listen to one another. We use the term in many ways, thinking of the Church as a family and even the Anglican Communion as one family under our Lord and Saviour.
If you type the letters CUAC into a computer search engine you will discover that it can mean Credit Union Acceptance Corporation or the Cambridge Union Athletic Club. As important as those fine organizations might be for Anglican CUAC has a very special meaning- it is the Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion.
An important part of the Anglican Consultative meetings being held in Kingston Jamaica is the opportunity for Ecumenical conversations. In times past our ecumenical partners came as guests and often kept silent during the meetings and offered a reflection at the end. At the Lambeth Conference 2008 Archbishop Williams invited our ecumenical partners not as guest but as members. That same invitation has been extended here