The pan-Anglican congress of lay and ordained leaders from across the Anglican Communion will take place in March 2007 outside Johannesburg, South Africa, the Primate of Southern Africa, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, told a Feb. 2 news conference in Cape Town.

Lay and ordained leaders from across the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion will be invited to participate in the gathering, titled “Towards Effective Anglican Mission: An International Conference on Prophetic Witness, Social Development and HIV/AIDS,” or TEAM.

Speakers at the Cape Town press conference said they hope to redirect the Anglican Communion’s energies away from the debates on human sexuality toward “things that really matter.” Organizers for the pan-Anglican congress also hope the Archbishop of Canterbury will attend and that lessons learned at TEAM will provide background material and information for the 2008 Lambeth Conference.

“What has happened in our Communion is that some people, who happen to be few in number, make the loudest noise,” Archbishop Ndungane said, as reported by Reuters. “In my travels around the Communion, I would like to think that the majority of Anglicans want to get on with the business of the Church.”

Seven objectives were set by the TEAM steering committee at their organizational meeting in Cape Town. They expect to encourage a “prophetic articulation for an Anglican theology which supports witness and action for social justice”; share the African experience of HIV/AIDS with the rest of the Communion; review the Communion’s response to the Millennium Development Goals; design new models of “relevant and sustainable development”; encourage “transformation through dialogue among peoples with diverse experiences and perspectives”; explore “resource mobilization”; and foster “mutual commitments and partnerships within the Anglican Communion.”

Although not “an Anglican Communion event,” the mandate to hold the congress, which had been cancelled by Archbishop Rowan Williams in 2004, had been given to Archbishop Ndungane at the 2001 primates meeting at the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville, N.C., a statement released by the steering committee said. “Archbishop Ndungane was entrusted with the responsibility of moving the Anglican Communion forward by addressing the vital social issues of poverty, trade, debt and HIV/AIDS.”

The Rev Canon Gregory Cameron, deputy general secretary for the Anglican Consultative Council, told The Living Church last month his office had been “offering advice and suggestions,” but the ACC was not involved in any official capacity with the TEAM congress.

The members of the TEAM Steering Committee include: The Most Rev. Njongonkulu Ndungane, Archbishop of Cape Town; the Rev. Canon George Brandt, rector of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, New York City; Jean Duff, managing director, Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation at Washington National Cathedral; the Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, staff director for peace and justice ministries at the Episcopal Church Center; the Rev. Canon Desmond Lambrechts, director of programmes, Church in the Province of Southern Africa HIV and AIDS office; the Rev. Canon Harold T. Lewis, rector of Calvary Church, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Delene Mark, CEO of H.O.P.E. Africa; Lyndon Metembo, projects facilitator, H.O.P.E. Africa; Esther Mombo, academic dean, St. Paul’s Theological College, Limeru, Kenya; the Rt. Rev. Trevor Mwamba, Bishop of Botswana; the Very Rev. June Osborne, dean of Salisbury Cathedral, England; Jenny Te Paa, dean of St. John’s College, Auckland, New Zealand; the Rev. Canon John L. Peterson, director, Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation at Washington National Cathedral; Canon Diane Porter, deputy for episcopal administration, Diocese of Long Island; the Rt. Rev. Johannes Seoka, Bishop of Pretoria; the Very Rev. Colin Slee, dean of Southwark Cathedral, England; Sizakele Shongwe, orphans and vulnerable children programme, Diocese of the Highveld, South Africa; and the Rt. Rev. Orris G. Walker, Bishop of Long Island.

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