ACSC will “resource the whole Anglican Communion for courageous and confident spiritual leadership in issues involving science.”
A new Anglican Communion Science Commission (ACSC) is being formed to “resource the whole Anglican Communion for courageous and confident spiritual leadership in issues involving science.” The ACSC will be co-chaired by the Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba; and the Bishop of Oxford, Stephen Croft.
The ACSC will formally launch at the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England, in July and August next year; and will hold its first conference shortly afterwards.
Scientists, theologians, and bishops from around the globe are being invited by the Anglican Communion’s Secretary General, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, to serve as Commissioners. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has asked Anglican Communion Primates to nominate a Bishop from their Church to serve as provincial representatives at conferences of the Commission.
Science will be a significant feature at the 2022 Lambeth Conference. Today, organisers have posted a series of videos, exploring the relationship between science and faith, on the Lambeth Conference website.
In an introductory video, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, spoke of the importance of science, saying: “it is scientific advance that has lifted so many people out of poverty. It is scientific advance that has enabled the world to feed itself.
“It is widespread science that has enabled us to produce vaccines at a speed that even five years ago – a year ago – would have been thought unimaginable. It is science that has begun to give us a big picture of our place in the world. It is science that has driven our consciousness of the danger to the world from climate change – and what we can do about it in the future.
“In all these things, it is science which has been a gift to human beings.”
He continued: “But the reaction of the Church has, for many years – and many centuries one might say – been very cautious about science and remains so today. Or there is fear.
“We talk about human beings playing at being God, we talk about loss of control; of changes to DNA. We talk about all kinds of things that lead to people being frightened. And particularly as we move and look forward over the next 10 or 20 years, if we think it has been quick so far, as President Reagan used to say: ‘you ain’t seen nothing yet.’
“That is a reason why Christians need to be both knowledgeable and able to ask questions and think about science.”
Among the scientists who have agreed to be Commissioners are Dr Derrick Aarons, the Chief Executive Officer at the Health Professions Authority in the Turks and Caicos Islands; Professor Kwamena Sagoe, Head of Virology at the University of Ghana’s Department of Medical Microbiology and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Virology; and Dr Heather Payne, a consultant paediatrician and Senior Medical Officer for the Welsh Government.
Theologians serving as Commissioners include Professor Joseph Galgalo, formerVice Chancellor and Associate Professor of Theology at Saint Paul’s University in Limuru, Kenya; Professor Jennifer Strawbridge, Associate Professor in New Testament Studies at the University of Oxford in the UK; and Professor Andrew Briggs, Professor of Nanomaterials at the University of Oxford, an expert in acoustic microscopy and materials for quantum technologies.
Professor Briggs is also acting as convenor of the ACSC as it begins its work ahead of its formal launch at next year’s Lambeth Conference.
The Anglican Communion Science Commission will have webpages on the Anglican Communion website.
