As the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) looks forward to its meeting in Belfast next week, some insights from our recent seminar on the Abuja Affirmation – ‘The Future has Arrived’ –  with the Revd Dr Ishaya Anthony and Canon Dr Christopher Wells may be of interest to readers.

Our two speakers on Thursday, 11 June, considered the direction of the Anglican Communion following the G26 Gafcon meeting in Abuja in March of this year.  The format was online-only on this occasion as our guests were joining from Nigeria and the USA respectively.

Dr Wells, who is the Anglican Communion Office’s Director of Unity, Faith and Order, shared an overview of the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals – to be discussed at the Belfast meeting. Dr Wells noted that the Proposals replace the reference to member churches being in communion with the See of Canterbury with new wording, which seeks “the highest degree of communion possible one with another”.

Dr Anthony noted that even though the conference was held “atpeaceful, well-protected venues …the broader context of the Middle Belt and northern Nigeria remains marked by insecurity, deep mutual mistrust, and religious and ethnic divisions.”  He was saddened that despite mentioning Abuja twice, the document “did not take cognisance of, nor mention, the lived realities of its host community and nation”.  He also questioned the Affirmation’s framing of the Thirty-nine Articles and the1662 Book of Common Prayer as “static, universal truths, ignoring their historical emergence within specific European political and cultural contexts.”

Dr Wells and Dr Anthony, who has served as the first Commonwealth Theologian in Residence at Westminster Abbey, spoke of their mutual respect foreach other and the presentations sought to build a better understanding of differing perspectives within Anglicanism.