Anglican relief, development and advocacy alliance gains momentum
Episcopal News Service. July 23, 2010 [072310-02]
ENS staff
An alliance intended to develop a more coordinated and collaborative approach to relief, development and advocacy work in the Anglican Communion is one step closer to becoming a reality after a working group from across the Anglican Communion met July 12-14 at Lambeth Palace, according to a press release from the Anglican Communion Office.
Episcopal Relief & Development was represented at the meeting by Rob Radtke, president, and Abagail Nelson, senior vice president for programs.
"Episcopal Relief & Development looks forward to shaping and participating in the alliance as it moves from concept to reality," said Radtke.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams described the proposed alliance as something he believes "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."
The release noted that a key aim of the alliance "is to work collaboratively to help equip Anglican churches to be more effective partners with other organizations. 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 proposed alliance has received enthusiastic support from the bishops attending the 2008 Lambeth Conference, the Anglican primates at their February 2009 meeting, and members of the Anglican Consultative Council, the communion's main policy-making body, in May 2009.
In January 2009, a group of relief and development practitioners discussed how the alliance might operate. It presented its findings in a foundational document to the ACC, which encouraged the working group to advance the work of the alliance and to seek the widest communion participation.
At its recent meeting, the group "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," the ACO release said.
The group reported back to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion. The release said that the group's 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.
The release included several reflections from group members.
Albert Baliesima, the Congolese participant, spoke about his church's programs in areas of HIV and sexual violence. "This is an opportunity to share our experiences and learn from each other in the Anglican Communion," he said.
Ollie Pokhana, a participant from the Solomon Islands where the church helps communities adapt to climate change, said the alliance can connect her 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 contribute to her context. "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," she said.
Sandra Andrade, the representative from Brazil, emphasized the importance of keeping people -- especially the most vulnerable -- at the heart of the vision. "We need to put at the center the people who will be served by this alliance, particularly our brothers and sisters who most need our support," she said.
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, the release said.
Williams also underscored 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."