ANGLICAN PRIMATES ISSUE COMMUNIQUÉ,

31 MARCH 2022

The primates (heads) of the 42 independent churches that make up the Anglican Communion in the world are meeting this week in London, hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury (center of picture). I count 32 present in this picture (37 attended, several virtually). There were three primates who pointedly refused to attend the meeting (Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda). Several others could not attend because of circumstances, such as surges of COVID-19. 

The purpose of the meeting was to serve as a "warm up" for the large Lambeth Conference slated to meet this summer (27 July-8 August) at Canterbury. The LC usually meets every ten years but had to be postponed from 2020 because of the pandemic. This year's LC will include some 700 bishops from the worldwide Anglican Communion. 

Today, 31 March, the primates issued a formal Communiqué giving their views of numerous problems in the contemporary world. Find it here . Of particular importance is #9, condemnation of the Russian invasion and war on Ukraine:  the "catastrophic effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine." The primates called for ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine.

The Episcopal Church is the province of the Anglican Communion in the United States and some lands beyond. Its primate is the presiding bishop, Michael Curry.

The independent church calling itself the Anglican Church in North America is not in the Anglican Communion and its fifty or so bishops will not be invited to the Lambeth Conference. ACNA is a proxy of GAFCON in America, but GAFCON is a self-created alliance of socially conservative Anglican provinces outside of the institutional structure of the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina is in ACNA, and therefore, not in the Anglican Communion. Its bishop will not be at Lambeth.

Find an ENS article on this week's meeting here .

For a thorough description of the work of the primates, see this article .