Two Paths Forward: What ACC-19 reveals about the nature of the Anglican Communion

Posted on July 8, 2026 
Filed under Anglican Communion, Opinion

At The American Anglican Council, Canon Mark Eldredge considers the just-completed meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (of the old Anglican Communion) –

“The recent meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC-19) once again brought into focus a question Anglicans have wrestled with for years: What truly holds the Anglican Communion together?

News coverage of the meeting understandably focused on discussions surrounding the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals and the differing perspectives expressed by delegates from across the Communion, but beneath the procedural debates lies a much deeper issue. The real question isn’t simply whether the Communion should adjust its governing structures but whether genuine communion can exist apart from a shared commitment to the apostolic faith. …

We are told that there’s been ‘little evidence of widespread support for GAFCON’s plan to leave the Anglican Communion,’ even while the article [by the Episcopal News Service] acknowledges that Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, and other provinces have continued to absent themselves from Canterbury-led gatherings. Both realities are stated in the same sentence! I can’t help but wonder if the Episcopal News Service reporter was being willfully ignorant or not. The ‘little evidence’ of GAFCON support includes the absentee provinces that make up most of the world’s Anglicans! Whether one agrees with every aspect of GAFCON’s vision or not, the continued absence of these GAFCON provinces signals that the present tensions aren’t ‘little’ or temporary. They reflect convictions that developed over many years concerning doctrine, authority, and the future of Anglican witness, and they can’t be ignored. …”

– Read it all.

See also:

Should the ACC Endorse the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals? – Bishop Glenn Davies writes at The Living Church (this was published before ACC-19) –

“In December 2024, the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith, and Order (IASCUFO) released The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals: Renewing the Instruments of the Anglican Communion, with a Supplementary Report released in March 2026. It was two years in the writing, having been commissioned by the 18th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), in response to the 2022 Lambeth Conference Call on Anglican Identity. The reports will be considered by the Anglican Consultative Council at its meeting in Belfast in June 2026. …”

As part of his conclusion, Bishop Davies argues,

“Unfortunately, neither proposal meets the challenge of the hour. The changes to the 1930 Resolution, as outlined above, actually weaken the definition of the nature of the Communion as a fellowship of Churches bound by Holy Scripture, as successive Lambeth Conferences have affirmed.”

– Read it all.

Graphic – The ACC-19 logo, via the Anglican Communion website.