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Ecumenical guests at the ACC 2016 meeting.

Ecumenical guests at the ACC 2016 meeting.

Leaders and other representatives of Anglican churches throughout the world have gathered from 8 through 19 April for the 16th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in Lusaka, Zambia. Participants are celebrating good news of faithful ministries within the communion, while exploring tensions among its provinces, especially over issues of sexual ethics on which Christians disagree.

The meeting opened with a joyous five-hour service of worship attended by more than 5,000 people, the majority drawn from the Anglican province of Central Africa.

The Anglican tradition of Christianity traces its lineage through the 16th-century separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church during the Reformation era, and its branches have spread by means of global mission and immigration. Anglicans are active in the ecumenical movement, and most member churches of this Christian world communion also belong to the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Natasha Klukach, WCC programme executive for Church and Ecumenical Relations, delivered ”greetings of prayerful support” for the work of the Anglican Communion from the WCC, and in particular from Central Committee moderator Agnes Abuom, an Anglican laywoman from Kenya, and general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

“As you meet here, be assured that you are held in prayer throughout the world and within the many confessions represented among our member churches. We are deeply grateful for all of the ways you as Anglicans nourish the life and work of the ecumenical movement,” said Klukach in her greeting, delivered on 8 April at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Lusaka.

Noting the council’s theme, “Intentional Discipleship in a World of Differences,” Klukach encouraged a common approach to discipleship that “strengthens us, reminds us that we walk together emboldened by collective faith and passion for bringing transformation in places of pain, injustice, poverty, marginalization and hopelessness. It can allow the beauty of diversity to inform our calling, and it can allow the fellowship we share to break down obstacles.”

Klukach expressed the hope that “through such encounter, committed dialogue and relationship, we come to understand ourselves better, our own unique gifts and identity, and what we may offer to the search for Christian unity.”

Anglican News Service reports on the ACC meeting

List of Anglican WCC member churches