Anglican Alliance: Development, Relief and Advocacy

“I believe the Anglican Alliance can allow local understanding and local initiative to grow and flourish, with the best skills and capacities we as a church worldwide can offer. The capacity of this Alliance promises great things for our common service as Anglicans responding to the needs of our world.” Archbishop of Canterbury

The Anglican Alliance has been created to connect and strengthen the development, relief and advocacy activities of Anglican churches, agencies and networks. The Anglican Alliance brings these entities together to work for a world free of poverty and injustice, to be a voice for the voiceless, to promote peace and reconciliation in communities affected by conflict, and to help safeguard the life of the earth. The vision is grounded in, and shaped by, an understanding of God’s integral and holistic mission as expressed through the Anglican Communion’s Marks of Mission.

The vision for the Anglican Alliance first took shape at the 2008 Lambeth Conference, with a recommendation by the Bishops to establish a more effective and coordinated way for Anglicans to work together globally for development, relief, and advocacy. The concept was developed during a two-year consultation process, involving the provinces and mission, relief and development agencies of the Communion. During that period, a Steering Group met twice to analyse the work in the Communion and to define how the Alliance could add value.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates’ Meeting and the Standing Committee monitored the development of the Alliance and gave their support to what was emerging. The Communion’s support was formalised in two resolutions passed by the Anglican Consultative Council in Jamaica in 2009.

The Alliance Secretariat was established in January 2011 under the leadership of its first Director, Sally Keeble, based at the Anglican Communion Office in London, with support from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office and funding from the Lambeth Partnership. The Alliance is now engaged in a series of regional consultations around the Communion to set priorities for its work, the first of which was co-hosted by the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA) in Nairobi in April 2011.

Modes of Action

The work of the Anglican Alliance is being shaped by and developed within the context of each region across the Communion. The following vision guides the work of the Alliance, with detailed activities being worked out through regional consultations:

Development through:

• Encouraging best practice – by promoting shared values, mutual accountability and high quality development work amongst its participants;
• Coordinating communication that enhances the visibility of the development work of the Anglican Communion and shares information between participants for mutual support and learning;
• Capacity building by helping to develop strategies to address capacity and resource issues for Anglicans working in relief and development;

Relief by developing a mechanism for determining an appropriate and collaborative response to emergencies facing areas in the Communion based on lessons learnt from past experiences. 

Advocacy by identifying key advocacy themes and offering opportunities, support and the provision of capacity building for participants and other ecumenical stakeholders to work collaboratively and strategically together.

The Alliance is mapping out the resources and strengths of what is already happening in order to identify capacities and gaps across the Communion. It is also encouraging theological reflection and mutual learning in all these areas by supporting opportunities where participants can discuss, share analyses and reflect theologically on development issues.

The Alliance cherishes its partnerships, within the Anglican Communion, with ecumenical bodies and with others who share a common vision for justice and peace among all people. It seeks to add value to and coordinate more effectively what is already happening in terms of development, relief and advocacy across the Communion.

Anglican Alliance website: www.anglicanalliance.org

Recent items relating to the Anglican Alliance are shown below:

July 2012

Young Peacebuilders meet with Archbishop Rowan
2 July 2012
The Archbishop of Canterbury met with a group of young people from around the world, gathered for The…

November 2011

Archbishop's Advent letter to Anglican Primates
30 November 2011
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has sent the following Advent letter to the Primates…

December 2010

New Director announced for The Anglican Alliance: Development, Relief and Advocacy
14 December 2010
The former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the UK's Department of International Development,…

July 2010

Anglican relief, development and advocacy alliance: a step closer to becoming reality
22 July 2010
A working group from across the worldwide Anglican Communion met at Lambeth Palace between 12 and 14…

January 2009

Archbishop meets with relief and development practitioners
22 January 2009
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, met last week with an invited group of relief and development…