Draft Resolutions for Tuesday 14 February

1 (a): Testimonies

The Anglican Consultative Council encourages the Evangelism and Discipleship Commission to identify and promote resources to encourage and facilitate the giving of testimony of the transformation through the Good News in the lives of our Church members.

2 (a): Theological Education

The Anglican Consultative Council:

  1. gives thanks for the work of Theological Education department (TEAC) at the Anglican Communion Office over the last five years, and in particular expresses its thanks to St Augustine’s Foundation, Canterbury, for the financial support that made this possible;
  1. welcomes and is glad to launch the new video-based learning resource ‘Renewing the Life of the Earth: Ecotheology Resources’, commending it for use in theological education programmes in churches and seminaries across the Anglican Communion;
  1. welcomes and endorses the establishing of the new Commission for Theological Education in the Anglican Communion (CTEAC) as it takes forward and extends the work of TEAC over the next five years.

2 (b): Safe Church

Recognising the priority of building a safe church throughout the Anglican Communion, the Anglican Consultative Council:

  1. commits itself to making the safety of all persons in the provinces of the Anglican Communion a priority of its focus, resource allocation and actions;
  2. requests the Safe Church Commission, in consultation with the Secretary General, to continue to provide safeguarding resources and training to the provinces;
  3. amends the definition of “vulnerable adult” in the ‘Guidelines to enhance the safety of all persons – especially children, young people and vulnerable adults’ – within the provinces of the Anglican Communion, so that it reads:

    “Vulnerable adult means an adult who has any relationship with a church worker where there is an intrinsic imbalance of power, which is capable of being exploited or taken advantage of by the church worker to the detriment of the adult. The imbalance of power may be increased by the circumstances of the adult such as where they:
    • are ministered to in their home;
    • are dependent on one or more persons for support such as in the case of an accident, illness or birth of a child;
    • experience a life crisis or natural disaster, such as the death of a family member or loss of employment, or loss of home and possessions;
    • through poverty, war or civil strife, displacement, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender, or other social and cultural factors have a diminished ability to protect themselves from abuse; or
    • have an intellectual or physical disability, mental illness or other impairment”;
  4. encourages member churches and agencies to use and implement the International Anglican Safe Church Commission Charter and Guidelines; and
  5. Requests that the Commission for Theological Education in the Anglican Communion, in consultation with the Secretary General, to develop resources around the theology of safeguarding.

3 (a): Good Differentiation

Click here for background paper

The Anglican Consultative Council:

  1. Welcomes the proposal from the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) to explore theological questions regarding structure and decision-making to help address our differences in the Anglican Communion;
  2. Affirms the importance of seeking to walk together to the highest degree possible, and learning from our ecumenical conversations how to accommodate differentiation patiently and respectfully; 
  3. Asks IASCUFO for any proposals that may impact the ACC constitution to be brought for full discussion to ACC-19; and
  4. asks IASCUFO to proceed with this work and report its progress to the Instruments of Communion.