Delegates to the third Anglican Global South to South meeting declined a personal plea for unity from the Archbishop of Canterbury, voting instead to recover the confessional identity of the Anglican Communion.

One hundred three delegates from 21 provinces, representing Bangladesh, Brazil, Hong Kong, Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Philippines, South India, Southeast Asia, the Southern Cone, and the West Indies and all 12 African provinces of the Anglican Communion met in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Ain El-Sukhna Oct. 25-30 under heavy police protection.

Prior to its start, the private meeting was the subject of much speculation, some of it fueled by secrecy over the location. Visitors and the press were kept away and Egyptian security police maintained a tight cordon around the Anglican leaders in light of the recent Al-Qaeda attacks on Western tourists in the neighboring resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

While pre-conference speculation posited the meeting would mark the start of formalized schism, discussion of theological education, poverty, corruption, violence and the HIV/AIDS pandemic dominated the schedule. Theological debate over the nature of the church and the boundaries of the faith occupied center stage in the eight-page communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.

Speaking to Reuters news service after his address to the Encounter, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said he was “concerned that we keep lines of communication open, that we don’t hurry to new structures.” A spokesman for Archbishop Williams explained to The Living Church the archbishop was not referring to “alternative structures proposed unilaterally anywhere, but about the general move toward changing existing structures to address particular needs and that needing to be done slowly.”

The boundaries of the Anglican “family identity” are circumscribed by the “Word of God,” according to the communiqué. The 74th General Convention’s belief that God was calling to Church to normalize homosexuality was an “unscriptural” innovation that would “undermine” the basic message of redemption. The conference offered no punitive disciplinary recommendations, saying instead, “We will continue to pray for all who embrace these erroneous teachings that they will be led to repentance.”

To guard against doctrinal error the communiqué endorsed the concept of an Anglican covenant, as described by the Windsor Report.

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