Dicastery represented at meeting of Anglican Consultative Council

The eighteenth meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council [ACC] took place from 12 to 19 February. ACC meets approximately every three years, and brings together representatives from almost all of the member churches of the Anglican Communion for prayer and discussion on matters of common concern. This year’s meeting was hosted by the Church of the Province of West Africa in Accra, Ghana. Representatives of 39 of the 42 member churches took part in the meeting, along with staff, members of commissions and networks of the Communion and a small number of ecumenical guests. The Catholic Church was represented by Fr Martin Browne OSB, official responsible for Anglican affairs in the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.

A poignant highlight of the week was a visit on Wednesday 15 February to Cape Coast Castle, the fortress where up to four million enslaved Africans were incarcerated before being shipped to the Americas in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The visit was followed by a service of Reconciliation in the nearby Anglican Cathedral.

On Tuesday 14 February, the Archbishop of Canterbury, His Grace Archbishop Justin Welby hosted the ecumenical guests for lunch and informal conversation, while on Thursday 16 February, the ecumenical guests took part in a plenary session on ecumenism. Fr Martin Browne read a letter of greeting from Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, before delivering a short reflection on Anglican-Catholic relations and the quest for fuller communion. The next meeting of the ACC will take place in Ireland in 2026.