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Anglican Consultative Council gets underway in Northern Ireland with tone of hope, unity

June 29, 2026

[Episcopal News Service – Belfast, Northern Ireland] Anglican leaders on June 28 opened their weeklong meeting here as the Anglican Consultative Council, or ACC, with repeated references to hope and unity in the face of persistent divisions. It is the first major Anglican Communion meeting attended by Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally since she took office in January. Mullally, in her introductory remarks as president of the ACC, joined others in underscoring this meeting’s theme: “Called to One Hope,” taken from Ephesians 4:4. “We have this hope because we make this journey with God,” she said. Representatives from 37 Anglican provinces, including The Episcopal Church, are attending this 19th meeting of the ACC, one of four “Instruments of Communion” that connect Anglicans worldwide in a shared mission through their theological beliefs and historical roots in the Church of England. The other Instruments of Communion are the Primates’ Meeting of provincial leaders, the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, and the office of the archbishop of Canterbury as a “focus for unity.” “Gathered here in fellowship, we embody the witness of God’s family,” Mullally said during the opening session underway at the Assembly Buildings Conference Centre in central Belfast.  Anglicans from the 42 autonomous, interdependent provinces may have different cultures, languages and local contexts, yet they are “drawn together by the same Gospel and the same lord Jesus Christ,” she said. The show of unity, however, could not alleviate evident divisions familiar from past Anglican Communion meetings. For years, leaders from the provinces of Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda have not sent representatives to ACC meetings, reflecting their objection to the more progressive positions on women’s ordination and LGTBQ+ inclusion taken by The Episcopal Church and several other provinces. Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda are again absent from this ACC meeting. The other provinces absent from ACC-19 are Sudan, whose country in recent years has been besieged by war and violence, and Congo, now dealing with an Ebola outbreak that has prompted travel restrictions. Uganda is also at the center of Africa’s Ebola crisis. ACC Chair Maggie Swinson, a lay leader from the Church of England, opened the June 28-July 4 meeting with a call for prayers and a moment of silence for Venezuela, where the death toll from two major earthquakes has topped 1,400. The Diocese of Venezuela is part of The Episcopal Church’s Province IX. Anglicans are called to gather this week as the ACC “not simply to transact business,” Swinson said. “We gather to listen, to consult and discern together.” Conversation across differences is possible because Jesus has shown the way, she said, and the Anglican Communion’s structures provide “a basis on which to meet, listen and remain in relationship with each other.” “We have important work before us,” she said. “May we undertake it carefully, constructively and with attention to one another and the communion we are here to serve.” Each Anglican and Episcopal province is allowed to send two or three representatives to the Anglican Consultative Council, which typically meets once every three years. Although its resolutions are not binding on individual provinces, they can offer a framework for dialogue on issues of relevance to all provinces, as well as collaborative approaches to bolstering the provinces’ mission and ministry. The ACC is also the only Anglican Communion body that gives an equal voice and vote to lay leaders. The Episcopal Church’s representatives to ACC-19 are Puerto Rico Bishop Rafael Morales Maldonado; the Rev. Ranjit Mathews, canon to the ordinary of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, and Yvonne O’Neal, a lay leader from the Diocese of New York. O’Neal is proposing a resolution at this ACC, signed by members from several other provinces, to raise awareness and call for a common witness about domestic violence, sexual violence, gender-based violence and other forms of abuse. The resolution builds on O’Neal’s work in New York and the wider Episcopal Church to promote “Break the Silence Sunday” and similar observances lamenting violence and abuse. Such violence is “all around us,” O’Neal told Episcopal News Service during a break in the June 28 meeting. ACC is scheduled to vote on all resolutions on its last day, July 4. Another central topic for discussion at this meeting will be the Nairobi-Cairo proposals, named for the cities where they were drafted by the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order. Under the two principal proposals, the ACC would consider a revised definition of the Anglican Communion to reframe how the provinces relate to each other and changes to the communion’s leadership structure that could diminish the role of the archbishop of Canterbury. O’Neal said she welcomes the discussion but is not eager to adopt the proposals yet at this meeting. “They need more refining. They need more thought,” she said. The potential changes to the role of the archbishop of Canterbury, in particular, “don’t sit well” with her, given that Mullally is still getting started as the first woman to hold that office. O’Neal, who attended Mullally’s installation in March, said she feels a connection to the archbishop and looks forward to working with her as the ACC helps plan for the communion’s future. Other activities scheduled for this week range from daily Bible studies and Holy Eucharist — an opening service was celebrated June 28 at Belfast Cathedral — to informal table discussions that will give ACC members from different parts of the world opportunities to share the “good news” and the “tough challenges” experienced by their churches. Another series of discussions will engage the ACC members in “global conversations” on some of the major issues that are shaping local ministries, including migration, the environment, education and interfaith relations. And on July 2, the members are scheduled to board buses for a daylong pilgrimage to Londonderry. The city near Northern Ireland’s border with the Republic of Ireland had been a flashpoint for conflict during the decades of Catholic-Protestant fighting known as The Troubles.  Since […]