Inter-Anglican Standing Committee on Unity, Faith and Order. IASCUFO Communiqué 2025 (London: Anglican Communion Office, 12 Dec. 2025). https://iarccum.org/doc/2151.

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IASCUFO Communiqué

2025

The 2025 meeting of IASCUFO took place in Rome from 7 to 11 December. The Commission was grateful for the hospitality of the Istituto Maria Santissima Bambina, including for the use of their Chapel for our daily worship. Members of the Commission joined services at All Saints’ (Church of England), St Paul’s within the Walls (The Episcopal Church), and St Peter’s Basilica on Sunday 7 December. We were delighted to be joined by the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Bishop Anthony Poggo.

The Commission also welcomed the participation in much of the meeting by Bishop Anthony Ball, Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome and Representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Holy See. We were grateful for Bishop Ball’s assistance around arrangements for our meeting, together with that of the staff at the Centre, where one day of the meeting was held, and where Commission members participated in a seminar on The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals.

IASCUFO was privileged to attend a Papal audience, at which the Commission’s presence was formally acknowledged, episcopal members were individually introduced to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, and gifts were exchanged. Afterwards we were received at the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity by His Eminence Cardinal Kurt Koch and members of the Dicastery. In an atmosphere of warm friendship, stimulating discussions focussed on the Dicastery’s 2024 Study Document, The Bishop of Rome, to which IASCUFO is preparing a response; and IASCUFO’s recent Nairobi-Cairo Proposals. The Commission also visited the Centro pro Unione and learned about its rich ecumenical history and current ministry.

Review and discussion of The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals — which arose from work commissioned by ACC-18 in 2023 to help the Communion find a way through the divisions and disagreements among us — constituted the major part of our work. We considered the responses received since publication in Advent 2024 and noted that further responses are anticipated. In response to this welcome feedback, supplementary work was explored in preparation for reporting to ACC-19 at its meeting in Belfast in June-July 2026. This included fresh consideration of the collegial ministry of the Archbishop of Canterbury within the Communion. We also reviewed related proposals for amending the ACC constitution. We shall produce additional resources reflecting these evolving developments to our Proposals, which will be published in advance of ACC-19.

We pursued our task conscious of the pain of the Communion’s disagreements. We continue to wrestle in hope, determined to advance our work, for the unity of the Communion within this broken and hurting world of which we are inescapably a part, and for the sake of our calling — together with all Christians — to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

In addition, the Commission reviewed the meetings of bilateral and multilateral dialogues and relationships over the past year, spanning the Assyrian, Lutheran, Methodist, Old Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, Orthodox, Pentecostal, and Roman Catholic churches. We reflected on major celebrations during the year of the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and heard reports on developing initiatives within the Anglican Communion in Evangelism and Discipleship, and Theological Education. We also gave further consideration to the requirements for setting up new member churches of the Communion, and to ecumenical proposals for observing a Feast of Creation. A programme was prepared for reporting to ACC-19 on IASCUFO’s work in all the foregoing areas.

At the papal audience, Pope Leo reminded us that “the Risen One has gone before us in the great trial of death, emerging victorious thanks to the power of divine Love.” At this Advent season, when we reflect on the future, both of our lives, and of the Church and the world, we too wait with expectant hope, that in and through us, God will “accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine” (Eph 3.20).

IASCUFO’s Mandate is:

• to promote the deepening of Communion between the Churches of the Anglican Communion, and between those Churches and the other Churches and traditions of the Christian oikumene
• to advise the Provinces and the Instruments of Communion on all questions of ecumenical engagement, proposals for national, regional or international ecumenical agreement or schemes of co-operation and unity, as well as on questions touching Anglican Faith and Order
• to review developments in the areas of faith, order or unity in the Anglican Communion and among ecumenical partners, and to give advice to the Churches of the Anglican Communion or to the Instruments of Communion upon them, with the intention to promote common understanding, consistency, and convergence both in Anglican Communion affairs, and in ecumenical engagement
• to assist any Province with the assessment of new proposals in the areas of Unity, Faith and Order as requested.

IASCUFO MEMBERSHIP:

The Rt Revd Dr Graham Tomlin, Chair (England)

The Rt Revd Dr Steven Abbarow (Malaysia)

Dr Joanildo Burity (Brazil)

The Most Revd Dr Titus Chung (Singapore)

The Rt Rev Dr Dalcy Badeli Dlamini (Eswatini)

The Very Revd Nak-Hyon Joseph Joo, (South Korea; member of IALC)

The Revd Dr Margaret Kalaiselvi (India)

The Rt Revd Dr Paul Korir (Kenya)

The Revd Dr Dane Neufeld (Canada)

The Revd Dr John Rogers (Barbados)

Mr Carlos Romero (Chile; member of ACC)

The Very Revd Dr Sarah Rowland Jones (Wales)

The Most Revd Dr Samy Shehata (Egypt)

The Revd Dr Katherine Sonderegger (United States of America)

The Rt Revd Eugene Sutton (United States of America; member of ACC)

The Rt Revd Todd Townshend (Canada)

The Rt Revd Dr Richard Treloar (Australia)