Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, the Anglican Communion’s secretary general, has stressed that the Anglican Church of North America is not a province of the Anglican Communion.
“It is simply not true to say that ACNA is part of the Anglican Communion,” he told Anglican Communion News Service during a meeting of the Communion’s standing committee. “To be part of the Communion, a province needs to be in communion with the See of Canterbury and to be a member of the Instruments of the Communion. ACNA is not in communion with the See of Canterbury, and has not sought membership” in the instruments.
“There is a long-standing process by which a province is adopted as a province of the Communion. It was a great joy for me to see Sudan go through this process and it was a privilege to be in Khartoum in July to see it become the 39th member of the Communion. ACNA has not gone through this process.
“ACNA is a church in ecumenical relationship with many of our provinces,” he added. “But that is also true of many churches, including the Methodist, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic churches.”
Speaking to the standing committee, Archbishop Josiah described the creation of the new province of Sudan as a particular highlight of his first two years as secretary general. He said the new province had started well but needs the support of the Communion. He said Christians are a minority in Sudan and will need to adopt a different approach compared to those in South Sudan, where they are a majority.
Idowu-Fearon spoke on various issues in his report [PDF], including unity, growth and evangelism, a task group created after the Primates’ Meeting 2016, and how his role had changed.
Read the rest at ACNS.
