Historical Perspective.
The Anglican Free Communion International is the oldest Anglican Communion after Canterbury. Here is a brief history from it earlier roots to its formal institution in 1897, and forward to the present. Read more........
Faith.
Of course, as the years have rolled on for two millennia, there have been many expressions of faith, some capable of much confusion. Here we set out the basic parameters of the ‘middle way’, the Anglican way, as historically framed, with acceptance of individual expressions of informed personal apprehension. Read more........
Inclusivity.
At the very heart of our integrity and enshrined in our constitution, we unequivocally maintain openhearted tolerance and inclusivity throughout our international community. Even when we cannot always in conscience agree in all respects, we do not allow any disagreement to impair our communion, our welcome, our fellowship, our friendship, our compassion , or unity, as beloved of the Lover of us all. Read more........
Gender Sensitive Language.
With the dawn of a new age of information dissemination, perhaps all of us have come to realise the vast diversity of nature, and human nature especially. With it, too often, we have been met with our own unwillingness to recognise our shared, common humanity and the value of all, each of us subject to fear and pain as well as joy and happiness. Sadly, we fall prey to judgement, unable to see beyond our own prejudices, lost in echo chambers of algorithmic ‘earwigs’. We seek to unpack our perceptive limitations and grow our horizons, in the sure knowledge of God’s equal love for all whom he has made. Read more........
Vocations.
I think you might be surprised if you allowed yourself to feel that you have a vocation to ministry in the Church. Firstly, every one of us in church is already fulfilling a ministry in every act of worship, or song, or empathetic smile, act of encouragement, or quiet reflection. See what else God might be asking of you! Read more........
Safeguarding.
Safeguarding has rightly and increasingly been seen as of imperative importance. In every respect and for everyone, we are all entitled to be safe. This is unequivocally accepted. Additionally, however, the vulnerable, with no power of their own, are of especial protection. Read more........
Historical Perspective.
The Anglican Free Communion International is the oldest Anglican Communion after Canterbury. Here is a brief history from it earlier roots to its formal institution in 1897, and forward to the present.
The Anglican Free Communion International is a worldwide group of autocephalous Churches made up of Christians committed to carrying on the vision of our founders, originating in the particular English experience of the Reformation.
The Anglican Free Communion International, was previously known as the Free Protestant Episcopal Church or the Episcopal Free Church. It was formally established in 1897, though deriving from substantial ecclesiastical strands originating as early as 1866, after the earlier heritage of the Non-Juror tradition, and subsequently, including different Oriental Christian traditions in England. It continues to consist of Anglicans, independent of Canterbury, of the many varieties of churchmanship, always substantively Catholic, though embracing Anglo-Catholic (High Church) sensibilities, and also those of Evangelicals (Low Church), Latitudinarians (Broad Church), Charismatics, and Liberals.
All Provinces within the Communion are autonomous, comprised of self-governing churches and families of Churches around the world.
Thus, the Anglican Free Communion International was initially established as the Free Protestant Episcopal Church in England, on 2nd November 1897, by the union of several small British episcopates established from the 1860s, independent of the Church of England. These were; an autonomous Church under the Syrian Patriarch of Antioch, headed by former Roman Catholic Priest, Bishop Raymond Ferrette (Mar Julius), later identified as the re-established Ancient British Church in 1874, under Bishop Richard Williams Morgan (Mar Palgius 1); The Nazarene Episcopal Ecclesia, founded in 1873, by The Most Rev’d James Martin; The Free Protestant Church of England, founded in 1890, by The Most Rev’d Leon Checkemian. The Most Rev’d Leon Checkemian (1848 – 1920), ordained as an Armenian Uniate chorbishop (later, with full episcopal jurisdiction), had originally moved to Britain and became an Anglican under the patronage of Dr. William Plunket (1828 to 1897), Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of the Church of Ireland. It was Dr Checkemian who went on to later serve as the first primate of the new Free Protestant Episcopal Church.
The mission of the Free Protestant Episcopal Church was to witness as a reunion denomination among the various post-Reformation bodies possessing valid Catholic sacraments, to maintain confidence over the objections raised by the Roman Church to the Holy Orders of the Church of England. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer was the normative liturgy, while the 1878 Constitution and Canons of the Reformed Episcopal Church in Great Britain were adopted. Checkemian was elected the first Primus as Mar Leon, and the Pro-Cathedral of the church was St Stephen’s Church, East Ham. In 1900, Checkemian retired from the Primacy in favour of Bishop Charles Isaac Stevens, also passing to him the headship of the United Armenian Catholic Church of the British Isles, a body for Armenian expatriates that he had founded in 1889.
In 1900 on the retirement of Dr Checkemian as primus of the Free Protestant Episcopal Church and Archbishop of the United Armenian Catholic Church, he passed their headship to Dr Charles Isaac Stevens. In 1917 The Anglican Free Communion, as the then Free Protestant Episcopal Church, was legally recognized by the English courts when one of its priests was declared exempt from military service by virtue of his ordination. Thereafter, as before, Apostolic lineage and succession was carefully guarded and extended.
Eventually, under the later Primacy of Dr Charles Dennis Boltwood, a decision was taken to expand the FPEC beyond the United Kingdom, when a year later, Dr Emmet Neil Enochs of California, was consecrated as Archbishop of the FPEC in the USA in 1958. Twenty years hence, on 20 October 1978, Dr Boltwood handed on to Dr Albert John Fuge the deed of succession as Primus of the Communion.
Sadly, this was contested by two bishops, Dr Horst Block, Missionary Bishop for Germany and France, and Emmanuel Yekorghan, Archbishop of West Africa. They together unilaterally elected Dr Block as Primus, thus establishing a schismatic church, which they named ‘The International FPEC’, which was eventually dissolved 22 years later, in February of 2o11.
During this time, the original FPEC, under Dr Boltwood’s supervision, had decided to wind down oversight operations in the U.K. in response to growth in the Americas. In 1982 he nominated Dr Charles Moffat, Archbishop of Canada, to become FPEC International Primus, through which decision, the Communion subsequently flourished and grew. Charles Moffatt served as Primus until his death in 1989 and was followed by Edwin Follick until he retired in 2015, when Richard Arthur Palmer succeeded him.
Five years later, after prayer and deliberation, the consistory of bishops, came to a unanimous and unique decision in our history. In considering implications of what was suggestive of perhaps unhelpful triumphalism of a leadership centred once again in England, and seemingly reminiscent of British historical colonialist experience, it replaced Archbishop Palmer, the then-presiding bishop. Archbishop Ronald Firestone, a unifying figure, was thus elected as the presiding bishop of our Communion on 1st January 2020, as Archbishop Palmer remained with his own ecclesial structure in Britain. Subsequently, in 2022, under Mgr. Firestone’s patronage, Archbishop Raúl Toro was elected as the new presiding bishop.
Currently the FPEC, now renamed the AFCI, remains a vibrant communion of free Anglican Churches around the world, retaining its original purpose, living the founders’ vision of an Anglican reconciliation and unity.
The Mission Statement, approved in Bolivia at General Synod in 2012, is simple and unequivocally maintains its ecumenical and inclusive stance: “No matter who you are or where you are on your spiritual journey you are welcome to our table. The Gifts of God are free!”
Furthermore, our Episcopal manifesto of the same synod, declared us to be in solidarity for a just society. We reject all forms of imperialism and violence, physical, economic, psychological or other. We earnestly seek to promote actions in favour of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the purpose of making the Kingdom of God present here and now.
The Churches of our Communion in Europe hold attestable Apostolic Succession from the Roman Catholic Church of Brazil, as well as from the Old Roman Catholic Church of Great Britain, and from the Old Catholic Church of Utrecht (Netherlands). Further, in our rich heritage, the Churches of our Communion in the Americas, Asia and Africa hold attestable Apostolic Succession derived from the Church of England, the ECUSA, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Syrian Orthodox Church, and of the Roman Catholic Church of Spalatum. These last lines were in the jurisdictions that united us in 1897 to found the then Free Protestant Episcopal Church.
So it was, on the occasion of the election of Mgr. Firestone on 1st January 2020, the council of bishops determined to reaffirm our historic vision and integrity in renaming the communion, ‘The Anglican Free Communion International – The Episcopal Free Church’, restating for the 21st century our Anglican and Catholic roots and identity for Christ in the world.
+Brian Rodford Pentecost 2023
Faith.
Of course, as the years have rolled on for two millennia, there have been many expressions of faith, some capable of much confusion. Here we set out the basic parameters of the ‘middle way’, the Anglican way, as historically framed, with acceptance of individual expressions of informed personal apprehension.
Identifying as post-Reformation (Anglican) and Catholic, we affirm all basic Christian truths, described as broadly those which have been believed everywhere, always, and by all of the wider and historical Church. We have no distinctive doctrines held apart from other Christians of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Every local Church, every diocese of the world, with a bishop at its head, is of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, having the fullness of the Church. As Peter was the first among the Apostles, so is the bishop in the local Church. Every bishop is a successor to Peter, and thus, the words of Matthew 16:18-19 are passed to all bishops. A layered cake when cut into pieces retains in every slice all the layers, each containing the full structure of the cake in itself. So it is with each local Church, as it were, a slice of Holy Church.
The Eucharist, or Holy Mass, or celebration of the Holy Communion, also called the Lord’s Supper, is the real constitution of the Church, from the first century to the present. Every celebration of The Eucharist is like a “pause” in our space-time, as we share God’s timelessness. We are present at the creation of the world, at its redemption, at Jesus’ one and only sacrifice on the cross, at his last supper, at his ascension and second coming, as all these are “represented” (“made present”) in the celebration of the Eucharist. It is, therefore, that all the other sacraments find their source in the Eucharist, and should be celebrated in connection with it.
When the Reformation happened in England, the reformers then worked to improve upon and correct the institution they had known in the Catholic Church of Rome, which, they believed, had lost its way. Yet they took care to maintain the essential structure of the historic faith. It means our worship preserves a profound sense of holiness that comes from worshipping in a way that connects us with the ancient church of the earliest disciples. Equally importantly, they retained the apostolic succession of Holy Order in the historic threefold sacred ministry of Priests and Deacons, fully embodied and nurtured in the sacred order and office of Bishops.
Our understanding that any body of Christians to be identified unconditionally with the historic, Biblical institution of the Church, is assured by Apostolic succession. Thus, the question of attestable validity of Holy Orders is the cornerstone of this ecclesiastical edifice. It acknowledges, apart from any other arguments, the historical fact of unbroken apostolic succession, before, through, and beyond the Reformation, to our present time.
The doctrine of the Trinity lies at the heart of Christianity. In essence it claims that God’s very being is “relational”, that is, God’s ontological existence is in loving relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is more than just an abstract thought. The three persons are God and Lord, as taken apart, but never three gods. As God is love, it is out of love that the Father has been giving birth to his Son or Word, and has been breathing out his Spirit. Time-space is a creature of God, and God is not held by it. Therefore, the processes of “birthing” and “breathing” are beyond time-space. These three persons are equal, and one, and timeless. Since all human cognition is partial, and language is limited, it is only by analogies we shape our words, using terms like “God”, “Father”, “Son”, “Word”, “Spirit”, “birthing”, “breathing” etc to express the reality of God, beyond our apprehension of the laws of nature, in the Triunity of God.
Since the essence of God is relationship, it indicates that we are also created for relationship: with God, with each other and with the whole universe. It is these relationships that give meaning to our lives, and if they break, then our own lives become broken too. This is why the saving work of Jesus is often called, “atonement”: literally, the at-one-ment. We believe that God’s plan in the fullness of time is to unite all things in heaven and on earth in his Son Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10).
Predicating our whole stance, with all Christians, is our knowledge that Jesus was not just a good man, but the Son of God. We believe that he was sent into the world by God the Father and by God the Spirit, and by his own will, and returned again to the heavenly realm. Bearing his human, risen and spiritualised body, he thereby introduced humankind and the temporal world into God’s eternity. Indeed, the whole of our faith stands or falls on whether Jesus is who he said he is.
+Brian Rodford Pentecost 2023
Inclusivity.
At the very heart of our integrity and enshrined in our constitution, we unequivocally maintain openhearted tolerance and inclusivity throughout our international community. Even when we cannot always in conscience agree in all respects, we do not allow any disagreement to impair our communion, our welcome, our fellowship, our friendship, our compassion , or unity, as beloved of the Lover of us all.
There are unarguably many examples we can all think of to remind us that all people are different from one another. We are individually unique, even in a world of over seven billion people. We can use our differences as a creative opportunity to share and learn or we can use our differences to excuse aggressive competition in sowing division and conflict between us, for our own, mercenary ends.
It is a matter of our collective shame, that, all too often, religion itself has unworthily moulded from its various scriptures, the resources to maintain personally ‘exeptionalist’ claims and avaricious aspirations, at the absolute expense of the weakest. Categorizing groups, according to perceived differences, such as ethnicity, skin colour, religion, gender identification or sexual orientation, has become something of a political tool, of which we have not remained altogether innocent. Too often we have become complicit in identifying some groups as inferior, using an ‘us against them’ mentality to denigrate and alienate.
How we use the Bible must, above all, be principled, intelligent, and open to humble discernment of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is not to be made by us the last word, but the word, spoken over time, until eventually codified in Nicea in AD 325, and continuing beyond. Illuminated by discernment of poetry, allusion, imagery, allegory, myth and faith history, borrowed and personally experienced, through God’s Holy inspiration in ages since, we have received blessings of ever greater knowledge of sacred truth. As we listen to the word as spoken in the context of every age, to communities and individuals, to mystics, prophets, the great and the humble, as sensed or reasoned, we are enabled to discern more deeply how authentic truth is never bound in unequivocally literal one-dimensionality. Benevolent seeking and discovery of truth remains, by God’s grace, a continuing, fulfilling, bountiful and salvific process.
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5‐7) we see Jesus spiritually feeding the multitude, with no thought for who they were, from where they came, or what they believed. Again, in the feeding of the 5000 (Matthew 14:13‐18), we see Jesus feeding the multitude, and thus, on this occasion, meeting their physical needs. In both cases, Jesus generously met their needs without prerequisites. Jesus, firstly as he interacted with them, asked nothing about relationships or marital status or gender or religion, or anything that would classify them as of one or another specific or minority group. He was sensitive to their personal needs as he met those needs. Jesus’ all-embracing concern was further and unequivocally clarified by what we read in Mark 9:38-42, where we learn how St John, particularly beloved of Jesus, at first misunderstood the all-embracing nature of Our Lord’s ministry and work of salvation for all the world. John, reporting an incident to Jesus, said, “We saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” Jesus’ reply was unequivocal, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. Whosoever is not against us is for us. Jesus’ way must be our way. His imperative must be our imperative.
Reflective of our absolute commitment to inclusivity, in the whole of the Anglican Free Communion, the sacraments of matrimony and of holy orders are open to the faithful, without distinction of gender/sex, just as it is the case with the other sacraments. This means that we bless same-gender marriages as we bless mixed-gender marriages; we ordain women and non-binary persons to be deacons, priests, and bishops, just as we ordain men.
In Genesis, we learn that God created humankind with distinction of sexes. However, in God's becoming a human being, we are alerted to the reality that sexual difference is not ontological. How else could Jesus have been able to assume the whole human nature in his person? In Christ, therefore, we are compelled to concur, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male and female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). It took the Church a couple of decades to realise the first (nor Jew nor Greek), seventeen centuries to begin to realise the second (nor slave nor free), and we are now glad to realise the third (nor male and female).
After a divorce, it is possible to celebrate a second marriage.
We hold fast to the Catholic faith of the English experience through the optic of post-reformation Anglicanism, unambiguously upheld in all our sacred ministries and sacraments. However, we also determine to respect the integrity of every individual to interpret faith and practice as they discern it under the Holy Spirit. We are therefore committed to the imperative of Jesus’ central message of radical inclusion. It is thus, we welcome everyone to participate in our fellowship without judgment or insisting they conform to our exact likeness or affirmations in order to be accepted. We invite and offer all a place at the table, without exception.
We discern that people have been drawn to spiritual and ceremonial expressions with structure and ritual, in which we recognise psychological efficacy and deep, intuitive, transcendent benefit. We, therefore, honour and embrace the historical liturgical traditions of the Church as we open ourselves to the present, creative guidance of the Holy Spirit. However, we also accept that within expressions of structural and ritual practice, some may have felt marginalised by inappropriate expectations that precipitate discomfort and exclusion. While ceremony, symbolism and ritual are wonderfully inspiring and laden with deep meaning, we are committed to the practice of all liturgical expression with encouragement, openness, inclusion, depth, with beauty and gentleness, for spiritual edification and sincere worship.
In short, our commitment is to creating worshipping communities dedicated to raising up, affirming, and equipping one another for the work of the Spirit of God. As such, we recognise the vocation to active peace-making, striving for justice and equality of all people and nations, loving those who are labelled, not infrequently by society, and, at times, ourselves, as “outsiders or enemies,” and for caring for God’s creation and bringing hope to the poor and poverty-stricken. (Micah 6:8) When Jesus was asked which of God's commandments is the greatest. His response was uncomplicated: the first and greatest is that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your soul and with all your strength. And the second is very closely similar, that you shall love your neighbour as yourself. It is from these two that are derived all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:35-40)
+Brian Rodford Pentecost 2023
Gender Sensitive Language.
With the dawn of a new age of information dissemination, perhaps all of us have come to realise the vast diversity of nature, and human nature especially. With it, too often, we have been met with our own unwillingness to recognise our shared, common humanity and the value of all, each of us subject to fear and pain as well as joy and happiness. Sadly, we fall prey to judgement, unable to see beyond our own prejudices, lost in echo chambers of algorithmic ‘earwigs’. We seek to unpack our perceptive limitations and grow our horizons, in the sure knowledge of God’s equal love for all whom he has made.
Within the Church we seem often to be faced with a double dilemma in speaking of both God and individuals, when seeking appropriate use of personal pronouns. Here is where, despite a commonly avowed intention always to show Christlike sensitivity, there has emerged a problem relating to gender identification. We haven’t quite reached a consensus on what this practically means, and how we should respond to those with whom we hold a differing interpretation. At its heart, for many, there seems an unequivocal biblical imperative expressed in terms of the apparent evidence for the possibility of only two gender identities in creation; male and female. The question arises, “Is this sufficient to close the conversation?”. An observation made in our Guiding Statement suggests this should not be so: “In Genesis, we learn that God created humankind with distinction of sexes. By God's becoming a human being, we are, however, aware that sexual difference is not ontological, otherwise Jesus would not have been able to assume the whole human nature in his person”.
It has long been observed that English and Dutch have no common-gender, third-person singular pronoun. Among all the personal pronouns, only he/hij and she/zij express gender. It/het, though ungendered, usually refers to things and animals rather than to people. Many in recent years have argued that English and Dutch could be improved if words were found to fill the gap. This would certainly make it easier to refer to a person whose gender is either not known, or to use when traditional gender identification is not personally appreciated.
‘LORD’, as God’s ‘name’, sometimes written in capitals in English translations, takes the place of the Hebrew rendering of the name, which is written but never verbally articulated. The name is too holy to be profaned, in Hebrew thought, in being spoken. The translation to the rendering, ‘LORD’, is, in respect of clearly Hebrew understanding, of ungendered meaning. Further, Jesus’ reference to God as Father is plainly not intended to suggest masculine ontology, since such language in anthropomorphic terms, relates to biologically sexual, reproductive identity. Unlike the ancient gods of many classically mythical identifications, the God of Abram does not need or engage in sexual activity. Furthermore, strongly motherly or feminine characteristics are used of God throughout scripture. Examples include, in Isaiah speaking of God, crying out as a woman in labour (42:14); as a nurse, bouncing her child on her lap (66:12); as a comforting mother (66:13); in Numbers, also as a comforting nurse (11:12); in Matthew, as a hen gathering her chicks (23:37); in Proverbs referring to God, in creation of all things (1:20, 4:6, 8:1, 8:11, 8:27-31, 9:1, 14:33); and also in the context of creation, in Matthew (11;19), and Luke (7:35).
There is a strong argument for our expanding our vocabulary in speaking of both God and those who cannot experience themselves within restrictive binary gender identification. The ‘Singular They’ has a long and established historical usage. Is it not time we all embraced the exploration of ungendered personal pronouns for all who wish to choose them for themselves? A suggestion I made, responding to a wish expressed to me of desiring a ‘singular’ identity, is, she – he – si (Singular Inclusive); hers – his – sis (Singular Inclusive, possessive-‘s’), her – him – sio) (Singular Inclusive Object), for God and individuals. (I’m not sure how acceptable English acronym words might be to Dutch speakers, though a similar device could perhaps be employed!) We might also sensitively use more widely, variously gendered and ungendered adjectives in referring to God.
We would never wish to close down the personal choices of anyone as to how they are personally referred that they may be comfortable in company or in conversation, any more than we would wish it for ourselves.
+Brian Rodford Pentecost 2023
Vocations.
I think you might be surprised if you allowed yourself to feel that you have a vocation to ministry in the Church. Firstly, every one of us in church is already fulfilling a ministry in every act of worship, or song, or empathetic smile, act of encouragement, or quiet reflection. See what else God might be asking of you!
In respect of vocation in the Church, God the Father works through the further two persons of the Trinity (Triunity), his Word, Jesus, and his Spirit. These, in effect, constitute two vocational successions:
The first succession is instituted by Jesus who, before leaving this world, charged his apostles with missionary, ecclesiastical leadership, inspiring them to ordain bishops, who in turn later ordained priests and deacons. Herein is identified the properly named, Apostolic Succession. Ordination takes place within the Holy Eucharist, with the laying-on of the hands. Ordained ministers are those who responded to God's call, have had that call tested, and have been trained and then ordained by a bishop. As ordained ministers, they have publicly and solemnly promised to serve the Church faithfully and have duly received authority from the church for their ministry.
The second succession, under the Holy Spirit, variously gives his charismata (gifts) directly to individuals, not only in everyday life, but also for work in the Church. The bishop does not lay his hands on these people, since the bishop possesses nothing in himself to bestow upon them. Within the assembly gathered for common prayer, however, the bishop acknowledges their ministry, for which the Holy Spirit has already provided them the gift. Needless to say, the Church thereby publicly recognises the propriety of their gifts. Such charismatic ministries have previously varied according to time, place, and necessity, and have not been fixed in number.
Among others, the following may historically be counted spiritual gifts for specific ministries:
- spiritual companions and directors;
- subdeacons, designated ministers of the altar, who may also bring Holy Communion to the sick and housebound;
- ushers and sacristans;
- acolytes, whose primary role in the past was to carry the blessed sacrament, but whose tasks have evolved into those of altar servers;
- teachers and catechists (doctors) of the faith, tasked with teaching doctrine of the Church, especially in catechesis of adults;
- ministries of deliverance;
- cantors;
- readers and intercessors.
While it may be adjudged totally appropriate to confer the subdeaconate on a person preparing for the deaconate, we should rather allow the charismatic ministries to flourish under the oversight of the bishop.
Some priests also have specific charismatic callings, but none should be a prerequisite of sacerdotal office.
All engaged in ministry within our Churches are self-supporting, receiving no salaried remuneration from the Church or stipends from the faithful.
We welcome interest from all who believe God may be calling them to ordained or lay ministry in our church, irrespective of advancing age, impaired ability or disability, gender, gender identification, sexuality, or marital status.
The next step is for us, together, to engage in a period and process of discernment.
Every vocation is uniquely personal and is not to be confused with professional aptitude. A call to sacred ministry depends wholly on God’s initiative, requiring a response, while secular profession remains a matter of competence and choice.
In our Churches we obviously value particular, pertinent qualities, and we believe it important to demonstrate love for God, inclusive patience, love and respect for others, consistent vocation to ministry, unreserved respect for our sacramental observance, and potential for effort and wisdom. Commitment to the Church, to God and to one’s self, is also clearly of necessary importance.
We also particularly determine to support those who, for whatever reason, have become needful of a new ecclesial home, having already been in Christian ministry, or trained in theology or ministry elsewhere. A mutually agreed framework for discernment and preparation will be undertaken, and every appropriate encouragement given.
In all cases, strict adherence to our safeguarding responsibilities and procedures will be observed and executed.
+Brian Rodford Pentecost 2023
Safeguarding.
Safeguarding has rightly and increasingly been seen as of imperative importance. In every respect and for everyone, we are all entitled to be safe. This is unequivocally accepted. Additionally, however, the vulnerable, with no power of their own, are of especial protection.
The global AFCI recognises and affirms its duty of care to all its members and to all who are in any way affected by its ministry and purposes, especially children, young people, and those vulnerable in any way, including adults.
All credible allegations of inappropriate behaviour will be reported to the police and relevant authorities by diocesan officers for proper investigation. Serious allegations will be met with immediate suspension pending investigation. On completion of all investigation a commensurate decision will be made by the bishop and others responsible in the diocese.
False or malicious allegations will be reported to the police and relevant authorities.
All who hold a position of ministry, leadership, administration, oversight or governance within the communion or individual church structure are required to provide national police or ministry of justice clearance / good conduct certification, before duties commence. These must be updated every three years.
+Brian Rodford Pentecost 2023