The Anglican Communion’s faith and order commission has called for a decentering of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s role in its structures as a “means of persevering together amid division.”
The 2023 declaration of 10 Global South primates that they were “no longer able to recognize” Archbishop Justin Welby “as the ‘first among equals’ leader of the Anglican Communion” because of his endorsement of the Church of England’s move toward same-sex blessings, commission members wrote, was “especially significant” in shaping their proposals.
The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals: Renewing the Instruments of the Anglican Communion, released December 6 by the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO), suggests a “narrow revision” of the 1930 Lambeth Conference’s classic description of the Communion that decenters the phrase “in communion with the See of Canterbury,” as well as a term-limited, rotating presidency for the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), which members call “a welcome and overdue diversification to the face of the Instruments of Communion.”
They also urge an enhanced role for the Primates’ Standing Committee in calling and convening the Primates’ Meeting and Lambeth Conference, and float the idea that the approximately decennial gathering of all Anglican bishops be held next in Asia or Africa.
The specific proposals are set within a wide-ranging survey of Anglican ecclesiology, with a particular focus on the historic marks of the Church as “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic,” traced through history and in terms of current mission and ministry.
“There is a real prospect of the fragmentation, or even dissolution of the Communion over the coming years if we do not pay urgent attention to matters of ecclesiology: the contours of communion, the limits of diversity, and means of persevering together amid division,” writes IASCUFO’s chair, the Rt. Rev. Graham Tomlin of the Church of England, in his foreword to the 44-page document.
Noting that the proposals were commissioned by the ACC in February 2023, drafted by commission members at meetings in the two African cities for which they are titled, and extensively discussed by the primates at their April meeting, Tomlin adds,
“The varied input that we have received has reflected the breadth of perspectives that may be found in the Anglican Communion on the issues that divide us, and the composition of our own commission reflects the same breadth. Accordingly, we have sought in our meetings to speak frankly, to protect one another’s conscience, and to cultivate a patient charity in discerning next faithful steps. All together, we present the following paper as the product of deep listening and honesty across theological and cultural difference.”
“This paper proposes seemingly small but significant changes to the way we work and understand ourselves as a Communion. It describes how we believe these changes faithfully reflect the spirit of Anglican discussion of these issues and how they present and natural and healthy response to the growth and changing nature of the Communion.”
IASCUFO has 18 members, drawn from 16 of the Communion’s member churches. The Episcopal Church is represented on IASCUFO by the Rev. Katherine Sonderegger, a member of the faculty at Virginia Theological Seminary; and by the Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton, who retired this year as Bishop of Maryland.
Sonderegger said of the document, “The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals exhort us as churches and as a Communion to ‘wait for one another,’ and to seek, under the Spirit’s guidance, the highest form of communion possible among us. The proposals give us the next steps forward, a glimpse of a new, more diverse Communion that will nurture our churches in the midst of serious division. May it be a sign of healing, of reconciliation, and renewal!”
Archbishop Samy Shehata of Alexandria, vice chair of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA) and one of the signatories of the controversial Ash Wednesday Statement that so firmly rejected Archbishop Welby’s leadership, also signaled his support for the proposals, which he helped to draft as an IASCUFO member:
“As we navigate the complexities of our future as Anglicans, we will do well to remember the importance of empathy, understanding, and collaboration. IASCUFO’s Nairobi-Cairo Proposals is a historical document for such a time as this. It lays the groundwork to continue in fellowship. Even in moments of disagreement, there is always an opportunity for dialogue and mutual respect. I pray for open hearts and minds in seeking common ground and solutions that benefit us all.”
A Revised Description
At the Primates’ Meeting press conference last April, Tomlin indicated that there was firm support among the chief bishops for revising the Communion’s nearly century-old description, propounded in the 1930 Lambeth Conference’s Resolution 49: “The Anglican Communion is a fellowship, within the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, of those duly constituted dioceses, provinces or regional Churches in communion with the see of Canterbury.”
The 1930 description is incorporated into the constitutions of many member churches of the Communion, including the Episcopal Church (Preamble). “All conversations about Anglican identity since 1930 have returned, explicitly or implicitly, to this resolution, lending it a de facto authority. No other statement has taken its place,” the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals acknowledge.
However, members argue, the bishops who framed it 94 years ago “could not have anticipated the future equality, mutuality, and maturing of the 42 sister churches of the Communion.” The Church of England, then the Communion’s “focal point and touchstone,” has not functioned as “the doorway of membership” for decades, with this role now filled by the Primates’ Meeting and Anglican Consultative Council.
“Anglicans now recognize that fullness of communion with the Church of England or the See of Canterbury are not requisite for any church of the Communion. Rather, all together seek the highest degree of communion possible, one with another,” they write.
In place of the former “summary phrase,” IASCUFO proposes: “The Anglican Communion is a fellowship of autonomous episcopal churches bound together by their shared inheritance, mutual service, common counsel, historic connection with the See of Canterbury, and commitment to seeking full communion one with another and with the wider Church.”
The complete version of new description, IASCUFO says, retains the earlier definition of the Communion as a “fellowship within the Church Catholic,” and its commitment “to uphold and propagate the Catholic and Apostolic faith and order, as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer.” It also retains the earlier description’s acknowledgment that the member churches are “autonomous, rooted in their various localities” (the 1930 description uses instead the phrase “particular or national churches”).
The key difference, they note, is that the phrase “communion with the See of Canterbury” would “no longer frame the description but is incorporated into the list of binding characteristics.” The new description specifies three additional binding characteristics: “shared inheritance, mutual service, [and] common counsel in conference.”
These four characteristics, IASCUFO says, “capture the present reality and ideals of the churches of the Communion, by which they ‘seek to foster the highest degree of communion’ with one another and with all churches and communities of the Universal Church.”
The proposals also discourage the practice of treating the phrase “in communion with the See of Canterbury” as a “shorthand summary of Anglican identity.”
“Communion with the See of Canterbury remains salutary, and for this reason can be sought, and may especially be cherished by many churches of the Communion. Constitutions and canons of churches of the Communion are free to specify their own commitment to ‘communion with the See of Canterbury.’ At the same time, such communion ought not be expected in any provincial constitution or canon, nor need it be affirmed univocally by all member churches. Some degree of latitude is fitting and appropriate,” members conclude.
The publication of this key text comes at a moment of unusual timing, with Archbishop Justin Welby having recently announced his resignation, effective January 6, 2025.
Broadened Leadership
A second set of proposals focuses on distributing the convening powers of the Archbishop of Canterbury among other senior bishops of the Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury has always served as president of the Anglican Consultative Council, and has called and convened Primates’ Meetings since they were established in 1979, as well as the 15 Lambeth Conferences that have gathered since 1867.
Archbishop Justin Welby signaled a willingness to relinquish this central convening power in his presidential address at the February 2023 Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Ghana, saying,
“The role of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the See of Canterbury, is a historic one. The instruments must change with the times.”
“I will not cling to place or position. I hold it very lightly, provided that the other Instruments of the Communion choose the new shape,” he added.
The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals note that a shared model of leadership for the Instruments of Communion builds on the increasingly collaborative approach that Archbishops of Canterbury have taken to the design and chairing of the Lambeth Conference, Primates’ Meeting, and Anglican Consultative Council in recent decades.
They also suggest adding flesh to the five-region structure whose importance within the Communion has grown over time. Notably, for the first time, next year, a representative from each of the Communion’s five regions will serve on the commission that will select Justin Welby’s successor as archbishop.
IASCUFO proposes that the Primates’ Meeting elect a primate to serve a six-year term as President of the Anglican Consultative Council. The primate elected to that role would also serve as regional primate for his or her region on the Primates’ Standing Committee. The presidency would rotate between the Communion’s five regions.
Evoking a Biblical precedent, IASCUFO adds, “We suggest that the primates consider casting lots to determine the order of rotation of the regions, and that the primates of each region be entrusted with electing the President when its turn comes round.”
The President of the ACC could also, IASCUFO says, play a role alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Secretary General of the Communion as “the ‘face’ of the Communion’s 42 sister churches,” representing worldwide Anglicanism in ecumenical and ceremonial contexts.
This shared leadership model bears certain similarities to the emphasis on synodality that has marked the pontificate of Pope Francis, and mirrors the way in which most other world communions structure the role of their presiding leader.
The proposals also suggest that the Primates’ Standing Committee play an enhanced role in calling and leading the Primates’ Meeting and Lambeth Conference. The five-member body is arguably the Communion’s most theologically diverse.
It includes progressive Brazilian primate Marinez Bassotto, moderate Archbishop John McDowell of Ireland, and conservative archbishops Jackson Ole Sapit of Kenya, Azad Marshall of Pakistan, and Leonard Dawea of Melanesia. All three conservative bishops have been associated with GSFA, and Dawea was among the signatories of its Ash Wednesday Statement that so forcefully rejected Archbishop Welby’s leadership.
This amplified role for the Primates’ Standing Committee, IASCUFO suggests, “could encourage the collective episcopate of the Anglican Communion to see the Lambeth Conference as theirs to shape to their own needs” and would show that “all are on an equal footing.” Presumably, if the summons to a Primates’ Meeting or Lambeth Conference were issued by a GSFA or GAFCON-affiliated primate from the Global South instead of a progressive English one, hesitant conservatives would find it more difficult to sit things out.
IASCUFO believes that the Lambeth Conference should continue — either in 2032 or later — though it urges that it be organized jointly by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the President and Chair of the Communion’s Standing Committee, and the Secretary General.
It also suggests limiting participation to diocesan bishops, to allow for a more manageable and affordable gathering; and gathering next in Africa or Asia, which would “showcas[e] the growth and vitality of the Communion beyond its English origins,” and allow for greater ease of access.
It urges that like the Lausanne Congress, a prominent evangelical church gathering, the Lambeth Conference retain its name “as a historic and symbolic evocation,” even as it moves to different locations around the world.
The Archbishop of Canterbury would remain one of the four Instruments of Communion under the IASCUFO proposals, “a symbol of the apostolic character of the Anglican Communion of churches.”
But the shared leadership model would allow more emphasis to be placed on his or her “personal and pastoral” ministry, and they would allow the archbishop “to serve, encourage, and persuade, as a brother or sister among siblings and peers, particularly in the college of the Lambeth Conference and the Primates’ Meeting.”
Next Steps
The 18th Anglican Consultative Council, under whose mandate IASCUFO has worked, required that “any proposals that may impact the ACC Constitution” be brought to ACC-19, which will meet in 2026, for full discussion.
Because the ACC Constitution defines its member churches as “in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury,” members of IASCUFO are working with members of the ACC’s Standing Committee to consider language more consistent with the new description. Revisions to the constitution’s provisions about the ACC’s presidency are also being drafted.
They also urge the primates to consider electing a first President of the ACC from among their number and suggest that the next Lambeth Conference “devote sustained attention to the identity and vocation of the Anglican Communion, to advance our shared understanding and deepen our collective commitment.”
“We have argued in this paper for several overdue adjustments to the Instruments of the Anglican Communion, with a view to reaffirming and reclaiming the ideals, commitments, and vocation of Anglicanism. We offer these suggestions in partial address of the profound differences and divisions between Anglicans,” IASCUFO states in a stirring conclusion to the paper.
“No doubt, it will take the churches of the Communion some years to recover a proper trust of one another. Such a recovery is possible insofar as we face our present challenges and speak honestly about the need for wise reform (see Rom. 8:18). The communion that we share will be stronger — more confident, more articulate about the faith, and structured more equitably and equally — as we engage these conversations seriously and charitably, with gratitude for all that God has done and will do, ‘more than we can ask or imagine’ (Eph. 3:20).”
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IASCUFO’s Proposed Statement on the nature and status of the Anglican Communion.
The Anglican Communion is a fellowship, within the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, of those duly constituted dioceses, provinces or regional Churches, which have the following characteristics in common:
a. they seek to uphold and propagate the Catholic and Apostolic faith and order as they are generally set forth in the Book of Common Prayer as authorised in their distinct Churches;
b. they are autonomous, and, as such, promote within each of their territories a local expression of Christian faith, life and worship; and
c. they are bound together through their shared inheritance, mutual service, common counsel (of bishops and others) in conference, and historic connection with the See of Canterbury, by which they seek interdependently to foster the highest degree of communion possible one with another.
The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and also writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.