The 17th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, ACC-17, will take place in Hong Kong from Sunday 28 April to Sunday 5 May 2019. The ACC is one of four “Instruments” of Communion. Its role is to “facilitate the co-operative work of the churches of the Anglican Communion, exchange information between the provinces and churches, and help to co-ordinate common action. It advises on the organisation and structures of the Communion, and seeks to develop common policies with respect to the world mission of the Church, including ecumenical matters.”
At ACC-17 members will be presented with draft international safeguarding guidelines, prepared by the Anglican Communion’s Safe Church Commission, which was established at the last meeting of the ACC in Zambia in 2016. Members will also discuss a range of issues, including Intentional Discipleship; the Communion’s work at the United Nations; women in church and society and ecumenical matters. They will also discuss the Communion’s official Networks.
ACC-17 will open and close with special services in St John’s Cathedral in Hong Kong. The rest of the conference takes place at the Gold Coast Hotel, 45 minutes from central Hong Kong.
Bona fide journalists seeking to cover ACC-17 are invited to apply for accreditation by completing this online form by 29 March 2019. Accredited journalists will receive access to ACC-17 sessions, two press conferences and daily media briefings as well as the services at St John’s Cathedral. (Please note: the ACC reserves the right to close any part of the meeting.)
In addition to the Cathedral services, the programme includes daily Bible studies, reports and briefings. There will be a Presidential Address by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Report to the Council by the ACC’s Secretary General, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon.
The two services at St John’s Cathedral will be live-streamed and it is anticipated that some ACC-17 business sessions will also be live-streamed, including the Presidential Address and Secretary General’s Report.
The ACC meets every three years. Dependent on their size, each of the 40 autonomous provinces (member Churches) of the Anglican Communion can send two or three members. Each is expected to send at least one ordained and one non-ordained person.
