Earlier today, Bishop Ian Douglas, the Episcopal Church’s bishop member of the Anglican Consultative Council, sent this letter to his colleagues on the ACC Standing Committee.
April 12, 2016
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ on the Standing Committee who attended the meeting of the Standing Committee in Lusaka, Zambia:
It was a joy to be with you in our Standing Committee meeting in Lusaka on 6-7 April, 2016 as we worked together for the mission of God and the unity of the Anglican Communion. I am grateful for our honest conversations, for the ways in which we challenge one another, and for our life together in Christ.
Many of you know that I have long considered whether God is calling me to stand for election as Chair of the Anglican Consultative Council. I thank God for your support of me in this process of discernment. I want to tell you before the call for nominations closes on Wednesday that I have decided not to stand. While I pray that I can continue to be of service to the Anglican Communion in some new way in the future, I believe that my not pursuing election as Chair of the ACC at this time will best facilitate our walking together in unity as the Anglican Communion, and that is my highest priority and my greatest hope and prayer.
Since its first meeting in 1971, the ACC has provided a space for the sharing of our stories in God’s mission as laity, priests, deacons and bishops from the many and diverse contexts of the churches of the Anglican Communion. By sharing our varied stories we live Anglicanism’s gift of holding together the particular and universal, the contextual and catholic, and the local and global. It has been a singular joy and privilege to walk this path with Anglican sisters and brothers in Christ in the meetings of ACC14, ACC15, and ACC16. I will forever cherish our time and work together as members of the Standing Committee and the Anglican Consultative Council.
As my term as a Member of the ACC from The Episcopal Church draws to a close and thus likewise my service on the Standing Committee, I pledge my ongoing support and prayers for you, for the ACC moving forward, for the incoming Standing Committee – its President, Chair and Vice Chair, and for the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion. God bless the Anglican Communion in our diversity and common service to God’s mission in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Faithfully yours,
The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas, Ph.D. (ACC14, 15, 16)