Fullness of faith can only be expressed together’

In his opening speech to the 15th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion celebrated the depth, richness and variety of the worldwide Anglican family.

Speaking at the first plenary session of ACC15, the Canon Kenneth Kearon told delegates assembled in Auckland’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, that Anglicanism at its best “reaches out to those with whom we differ, recognising that together we will come to a deeper and far richer understanding of God than any of us could do on our own or if we only share the company of like-minded people.”

“Each of us will, I hope, bring of our best to this meeting, but what each of us brings will at best represent an incomplete apprehension of the gospel of God; the fullness of our faith will only be expressed when together with our fellow Christians we seek to ‘give an account of the faith that is in us’ (1 Peter 3:15).

“That quest can never be undertaken along – like theology and like worship we need the community of believers – the Communion of Saints – to enable us to grow in that faith.”

Canon Kearon went on to share about priority areas and projects that are on the agenda for the eight-day meeting. These included Mission, the Anglican Alliance, the Bible in the Life of the Church, Continuing Indaba, ecumenical dialogues and inter faith issues, as well as the challenges of communications across the Communion.

He also said that there was to be a detailed paper for ACC discussion on the background and present nature of the Instruments of Communion that would help shape their development. Delegates will also share with the rest of the gathering about the process and status of the Anglican Communion Covenant in their Provinces.

Delegates listening to the speech were seated at the circular tables laid out at the front of the cathedral. For this 15th Anglican Consultative Council meeting all Provinces accepted the invitation to come and most delegates have been able to attend.

Out of 87 delegates, 10 members are currently not present1: some are in transit, others have given their apologies due to visa, personal or administrative issues.

The rest of the programme is a mix of daily worship, plenary sessions, self-select group sessions, regional group meetings and three evening presentations in the cathedral which are open to the general public:
. Tuesday 30 October – We can stop abuse: The journey from words to action
. Thursday 1 November – Environmental change: understanding the issues, developing a response
. Tuesday 6 November – Christian witness is a multi-religious world.