Supplement to The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals (Rome, 2025)

Author/editor(s): IASCUFO
Creation: 3 Mar. 2026 (The date of original creation or publication, if known)

Persistent link: https://iarccum.org/doc/2149 (Please use this permanent URL in your publications and bookmarks to link to this document. The files linked below may be modified, but this record will remain at this location.)

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A Lent 2026 supplement to The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals from the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order. It reflects on responses to the original paper and proposes revisions for consideration by ACC-19.


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Supplement to The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals (Rome, 2025)

Executive summary

IASCUFO’s Nairobi-Cairo Proposals (NCPs), published in Advent 2024, envision the Church afresh as truly one, holy, catholic, and apostolic so that Anglicans may carry the hope of a new creation into the world. The Anglican Communion long ago committed itself to answering God’s call to unity and to finding our place in the Body of Christ. What happens between us as we acknowledge our interdependence matters for our integrity and effectiveness locally, regionally, and globally. The following supplement to the NCPs, developed at a meeting in Rome in December 2025, summarises IASCUFO’s learning as we have listened to responses to our paper and suggests several revisions for the consideration of ACC-19, meeting in June/July 2026.

The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals boil down to three urgent calls for our common life:

• Acknowledge developments in the structures of the Communion since 1930. When the Lambeth Conference of 1930 offered its description of the Anglican Communion, it presumed an understanding of all Anglican churches as gathered round the Church of England as mother. This has not been the case since at least 1968. All Anglican churches, including the Church of England, are now sisters. The Constitution of the ACC governs the Communion’s membership. In view of these facts, an updated description of the Communion will enable all Anglicans to speak truly and honestly about the faith, ministry, and mission that we share.

• Acknowledge that communion has been damaged between some churches, but that real communion remains, both as God’s gift and as something Christ calls us to intensify. All the churches of the Anglican Communion are bound together, despite our differences, in living relationships with one another, aided by the Instruments of Communion. We are not defined by the decisions of any single member church. This fact enables us to articulate our communion in various ways, and to walk together to the highest degree possible. It encourages us to be honest about our divisions and make room for one another in love.

• Ensure the Communion’s leadership looks like the Communion. This means recognising the fact that the Anglican Consultative Council and Primates’ Meeting, as well as the Lambeth Conference, complement and complete the unique ministry of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Communion. The ACC incorporates lay voices and leadership: we propose that these contributions be enhanced. The regional primates already assist the Archbishop of Canterbury in his or her ministry in the Communion: we propose that the collegial character of this shared ministry be developed.

To acknowledge the need for change and act accordingly will enhance the integrity of our witness, promote collegiality between our leaders, and amplify Anglican voices in both ecumenical and secular settings. It will enable us to shed some of the baggage of colonialism while celebrating a shared theological and sacramental inheritance, to which the ministry of the Archbishop of Canterbury bears witness. And it will encourage all Anglican churches, even amid serious disagreements, to speak and embody a word of hope and healing in a world riven by violence and despair.