The Anglican Consultative Council

The Anglican Consultative Council is an incorporated charitable company, registered in England. Its constitution sets out the legal parameters of the Council and its functions.

You can read the constitution here.

The appendix to the constitution sets out the membership of the Anglican Consultative Council (and the Anglican Communion). This list of member churches can be amended by the Standing Committee (the trustee body of the ACC). Any such amendment requires the consent of the majority of Primates and the approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

It was last amended to incorporate the 42nd province of the Anglican Communion – the Igreja Anglicana de Mocambique e Angola (the Anglican Church in Mozambique and Angola).

Plenary sessions of the ACC bring together representatives of the member churches. Smaller provinces are entitled to send two representatives – one ordained and one lay. Larger provinces are entitled to send three representatives – one lay, one person ordained to the diaconate or priesthood, and another ordained to the episcopacy.

Provinces may choose themselves how they appoint their representatives. Some are selected by appointments committees, others by the primate and others by election. Representatives are appointed to serve for three meetings of the ACC (roughly a 10-year term), although their membership can be revoked by the sending province according to their internal rules or, in the case or ordained representatives, if they cease to hold office.

In addition, some members of the ACC are appointed by Primates in regional groups to represent youth in the Anglican Communion; and others are co-opted by the Anglican Communion’s Standing Committee. For ACC-18, the Standing Committee have co-opted a number of provincial secretaries. This group was chosen because space restrictions and efforts to limit the spread of Covid-19 means that it will not be possible in Accra, as it was in Hong Kong for ACC-17, to hold joint sessions of the ACC and the Provincial Secretaries’ Conference.

The purpose of the Anglican Consultative Council, it its plenary session, is to promote the unity and purposes of the Churches of the Anglican Communion in mission, evangelism, ecumenical relations, communication, administration and finance.

The Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion comprises five primates, chosen by their fellow-primates as regional representatives; and XX members elected by the ACC in plenary session. At ACC-18, in addition to a new Chair and Vice Chair, the members of ACC-18 will elect XX members of the Standing Committee to replace those whose term of office comes to an end at the conclusion of ACC-18.

If a representative of the ACC is unable to attend a plenary session, the province may send an alternate. Alternates may take part in all discussions of the council, but they are not members of the ACC and are unable to stand or vote in the elections for the Standing Committee.

  • Click here to see the list of Standing Committee members
  • Click here to see the list of Anglican Consultative Council members