Archbishop meets with relief and development practitioners
Thursday 22nd January 2009
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, met last week with an invited group of relief and development practitioners and professionals at Lambeth Palace.The consultation followed on from recommendations made by bishops at the Lambeth Conference for a more collaborative approach to existing relief, development and advocacy activities in the Anglican Communion.
Seeking to build on existing successful models of practice and partnership, the meeting produced consensus around two key issues:
- The need to define and communicate an Anglican theological basis of understanding and practice of development that roots development firmly within God's mission as articulated in the Anglican Communion; and to communicate this throughout the Communion, from parish level to international structures.
- To use this foundational document to help create an Anglican Alliance, in order to better coordinate and strengthen our advocacy work, share best practices, and improve visibility and communication of our existing work, both within the Communion and in the wider world.
Participants were drawn from across different regions of the Anglican Communion, and reflected the rich and diverse expressions of development that are an integral part of the mission and daily work of the Anglican Communion.
Recommendations from this meeting will be taken to both the Primates meeting in February and the Anglican Consultative Council in May. The Archbishop of Canterbury's office will continue to play a role in facilitating this process in partnership with the Anglican Communion Office.