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Church of Ireland ready to welcome Anglican, Episcopal leaders from 38 provinces to ACC-19

June 18, 2026

[Episcopal News Service] Representatives from 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion, including The Episcopal Church, are expected to travel to Belfast, Northern Ireland, from June 28-July 4 for the 19th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Church of Ireland is ready to welcome them. “We have a reputation for hospitality. We hope that people feel the warmth of that when they come,” Ireland Archbishop John McDowell, whose province includes both Ireland and Northern Ireland, said June 18 during a media briefing organized by the Anglican Communion Office. The Anglican Consultative Council, often referred to as ACC, is one of four “Instruments of Communion” by which the 42 autonomous, interdependent provinces of the Anglican Communion engage across differences in common mission based in their shared historical roots in the Church of England. The other three Instruments of Communion are the Primates’ Meeting of provincial leaders, the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops and the archbishop of Canterbury, who serves as a kind of “focus of unity.” 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. Mathews attended the last ACC meeting, held in 2023 in Accra, Ghana. Morales and O’Neal will be attending their first meeting as Episcopal members. The weeklong meeting also will be the first Anglican Communion meeting attended by Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, who took office in January. In her role, she serves as president of the Anglican Consultative Council. ACC-19 is scheduled to discuss potential changes to the leadership role of the archbishop of Canterbury, based recommendations known as the Nairobi-Cairo proposals.  The first proposal offers an updated statement of what binds the 42 provinces to each other as the Anglican Communion. The second proposal seeks to broaden and diversify the leadership of the Instruments of Communion in ways that could diminish that archbishop of Canterbury’s status as a “first among equals.” The two principal proposals were developed by a body known as the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order, led by Bishop Graham Tomlin of the Church of England. Tomlin said during the June 18 media briefing on Zoom that the Anglican Communion’s “center of gravity” has shifted over the past century, with significant growth in African and Asian provinces. “With that growth can also come some tensions,” Tomlin said. Citing theological divisions, some conservative Anglican bishops have warned of “impaired” communion with provinces like The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada that are more progressive on issues of LGBTQ+ inclusion. It remains to be seen whether the Nairobi-Cairo proposals could mend those relations. Longstanding ties between the Anglican provinces faced new uncertainty in October 2025, shortly after Mullally was named as the next archbishop of Canterbury, when a faction of conservative provincial leaders said they were rejecting the archbishop’s authority and intended to form their own global body to rival the Anglican Communion. Support for that faction, however, appears to have fizzled, at least based on the large number of provinces expected to attend the upcoming Anglican Consultative Council meeting. Only four provinces will be absent, according to Anglican Communion officials. They include the provinces of Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda, which have shunned these meetings for years. The fourth is the Province of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, which ministers in a country torn apart by war and violence. The other 38 provinces have accepted the invitation to send up to three representatives each. Maggie Swinson, a Church of England lay leader who serves as chair of the ACC, was encouraged by the positive response. “For me, what this indicates is there is a desire for us to talk about these things rather than shut doors and disengage,” she said. Bishop Anthony Poggo, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, underscored the theme of ACC-19: “Called to One Hope.” “In a fragmented world, it is important that the church is called by Christ to be one,” Poggo said during the media briefing. In his travels, he sees Anglicans around the world who are active in the faith and doing “wonderful things” in their communities. “It gives me hope,” he said, and he expects those stories will be elevated at the ACC meeting. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.