wfn.org | Anglican relief, development and advocacy alliance a step closer to becoming reality

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Anglican relief, development and advocacy alliance a step closer to becoming 
reality

Posted On : July 23, 2010 11:09 AM | Posted By : Webmaster
ACNS: http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2010/7/23/ACNS4715
Related Categories: ACO

A working group from across the worldwide Anglican Communion met at Lambeth 
Palace between 12 and 14 July to plan how to turn the proposed Anglican 
Alliance on relief, development and advocacy into a reality.

Professionals from five continents working on advocacy, relief and community 
development programmes reviewed responses to a public consultation on the 
foundational document and the issues arising from them, and worked together to 
chart a way forward for the first few years of the Alliance.

On the consultation's final afternoon the group reported back to both the 
Archbishop of Canterbury and the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, 
Canon Kenneth Kearon.

Their report included inspiring stories of local church action on relief, 
development and advocacy currently taking place around the Anglican world, and 
comments on how the Alliance could support this work.

Reflecting on his Church's programmes in areas of HIV and sexual violence, the Congolese 
participant Albert Baliesima said: "This is an opportunity to share our experiences 
and learn from each other in the Anglican Communion."

Ollie Pokhana, a participant from the Solomon Islands where the Church helps communities 
adapt to climate change, agreed: "This Alliance can connect me with other people who 
are engaged in similar issues so we can get better results."

Delene Mark from the Anglican Church of Southern Africa described her church's campaign 
against human trafficking and reflected on what the Alliance could add: "It could 
strengthen the voice of the individual churches working on key issues such as human 
trafficking, but also raise the profile of this campaign at the global level, encouraging 
churches in other countries to engage."

Mrs Sandra Andrade, the representative from Brazil, emphasised the importance of keeping 
people­especially the most vulnerable­at the heart of the vision: "We need to put at 
the centre the people who will be served by this Alliance, particularly our brothers and sisters 
who most need our support."

The Archbishop of Canterbury described the proposed Alliance as something he believed 
"could really allow local understanding, and local initiative to grow and flourish 
with the best skills and capacities we, as a church worldwide, can offer."

It was affirmed that a key aim of the Alliance was to work collaboratively to 
help equip Anglican churches to be more effective partners with other 
organisations. The working group's plan is to establish a light provisional 
structure to facilitate learning and collaboration while the participants 
developed the most effective mechanisms for learning from and strengthening 
grassroots initiatives and promoting regional  collaboration.

The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Revd Canon Kenneth Kearon, 
told the group that this consultation was an encouraging move forward, seeing 
Anglicans coming together on a common vision around a response to poverty.

Dr Williams also stressed that with the Alliance the Anglican Communion was not trying 
"to create another huge NGO" but rather something that was
"more focused, more intentional; something which could genuinely lead to an exchange 
of wisdom and experience and build the capacity of churches to be a credible partner for 
governments and NGOs."