New bishops at the Anglican Communion Office in London as part of a week-long induction program. Photo: ACNS
A group of 33 recently appointed and elected bishops are spending a week at Canterbury Cathedral—the Anglican Communion’s mother church—as part of a global induction program. They are taking part in the new bishops’ course, which happens every February. It provides an opportunity for new bishops from around the world to meet each other for fellowship, prayer and learning.
Today, Tuesday, February 6, they are in London, visiting the Anglican Communion Office in Notting Hill in the morning, and Lambeth Palace, the London home and offices of the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the afternoon.
The bishops are from 16 Anglican provinces and 17 different countries: Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burundi, Canada, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, Mozambique, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, South Sudan and Tanzania. (Among them are Bishop Anne Germond, of the diocese of Algoma, Suffragan Bishop Jenny Andison, area bishop of York-Credit Valley, diocese of Toronto, and Bishop John Watson, of the diocese of Central Newfoundland.)
This morning, the new bishops heard about how the Anglican Communion Office, and its directors and staff, work to support the mission and ministry of Anglican churches throughout the world in work mandated by the Anglican Consultative Council.
Its departments include mission, women in church and society, ecumenism and communications. The new bishops also heard about plans for the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops in 2020 and the work of the Anglican Alliance, which helps to co-ordinate the work of Anglican development agencies around the world.
—With files from the Anglican Journal
Editor’s Note: Bishop John Watson of the diocese of Central Newfoundland was added to the list of Canadian bishops taking part in the one-week bishops’ course.