The Chair of IASCUFO, the Rt Revd Graham Tomlin and other commission members, the Very Revd Dr Sarah Rowland Jones and Canon Andrew Khoo, gave a presentation to offer ‘The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals’ to ACC members at this morning’s meeting of ACC-19.

IASCUFO is the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order. It is the Anglican Communion’s permanent theological commission, which offers the Communion guidance on theology and church governance, and overseeing agreements with other Christian churches.

The purpose of today’s presentation was to offer the output of IASCUFO’s work over the last three years in creating The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals (2024) and the Commission’s more recent Supplement (2026) paper, which refined some of the key recommendations.

The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals will be one of the items discussed at this year’s Anglican Consultative Council meeting which is gathered in Belfast (28 June - 4 July). After hearing today's presentation, it is now the work of the ACC Members as a consultative council, to consider and discuss the proposals and to shape the next steps.

In broad terms, The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals make recommendations about how to describe the shape of the Anglican Communion in a post-colonial world and offer ways to consider broadening the leadership of the Anglican Communion to reflect the diverse nature of the communion today. They offer a framework for describing ‘differentiated communion’ - acknowledging that Member churches may hold different positions on significant issues - while remaining within the broader Anglican family.

In his presentation today, Bishop Graham Tomlin set the scene for The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals. He emphasised that IASCUFO’s work was being ‘offered’ to ACC Members for their ongoing discernment and reflection saying: ‘...the proposals are an invitation to the ACC to draw on our work to address these pressing questions: How do we honour what we have been in the past? How do we be honest about where we are in the present, and how might we work together towards that restoration of full communion amongst us? And so our hope is that our discussions over the next few days will not be a matter of whether you're for or against The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals, whether we accept them or we reject them. But it is rather for you as the ACC to decide on how to draw on and to develop what we have offered in discerning what will best help us journey onwards together with honesty and generosity towards one another.’

In summarising what led to IASCUFO’s work, Bishop Graham referenced both the Lambeth Call on Anglican Identity which was shared by the bishops of the Lambeth Conference in 2022 and called for a ‘review of the current instruments of the Communion’. He also referred to the report on ‘Good Differentiation’ that IASCUFO shared to ACC Members at the last Anglican Consultative Council in Ghana, in 2023, and the subsequent resolution members passed at ACC-18.

The ACC-18 resolution asked IASCUFO to ‘explore theological questions regarding structure and decision-making to help address our differences in the Anglican Communion’. It affirmed ‘the importance of seeking to walk together to the highest degree possible and learning from our ecumenical conversations on how to accommodate differences patiently and respectfully.’ The resolution also asked ‘IASCUFO for any proposals that may impact the ACC constitution to be brought for full discussion to ACC-19’.

Describing the consultative nature of IASCUFO’s work over the last three years, Bishop Graham said that when The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals were published in Advent 2024, ‘… the document was not a fixed thing, it was not a final word. We have continued to work on the proposals in response to feedback from the instruments of communion, from various member churches of the communion and others as well.’ As a result of this process, a Supplement was published in 2026 that offered refinements to the original paper.

This process of consultation has involved extensive reflection of the commission and broader consultation with the Primates’ Standing Committee, the Archbishop of Canterbury (ABC), and the Standing Committee of the ACC. IASCUFO have also received formal responses from Member churches and responses from interested and engaged individuals throughout the Anglican Communion. A compilation of these responses is available on Anglican News.

In her segment of the presentation, Sarah Rowland Jones, a member of IASCUFO and the Dean of St David’s Cathedral in Wales, outlined key moments in Anglican history that have shaped IASCUFO’s thinking about Anglican Identity. This included a reference to the Lambeth Conference 1930’s Resolution 49, which she suggested features a description of the Anglican Communion’s nature rather than a fixed definition.
IASCUFO’s presentation today affirmed that their work is an attempt to update those descriptions, to allow for a more plural understanding of Anglican communion - one that accommodates different Anglican groups - while holding the whole body together.

In offering the work to ACC Members, Sarah Rowland Jones described The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals as ‘… a resource for you’ saying that members should ‘…take what we have done and move it forward and develop it and deepen it and strengthen it.’

The final presenter from IASCUFO was Andrew Khoo – a lay member of ACC and also IASCUFO. He outlined the key recommendations in The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals. 

Following today’s presentation, ACC Members will discuss the recommendations and any emerging resolutions during the week ahead. This process began today, when ACC Members assented to a resolution thanking IASCUFO for the work; for the Member churches who have engaged with it; and affirming the vocation of all member Churches of the Anglican Communion ‘to seek to walk together to the highest degree of communion possible one with another’.

Council Discussions will continue tomorrow.

For more information

The resolution from today’s session reads:

The Anglican Consultative Council:

(i) reaffirms the vocation of all member Churches of the Anglican Communion to seek to walk together to the highest degree of communion possible one with another, and to learn from our ecumenical conversations how to accommodate differentiation patiently and respectfully;

[this is a quotation of ACC-18, Resolution 3a]

(ii) thanks the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order for its work as delivered in The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals and subsequent Supplement (2024, 2026), as requested by ACC-18;

(iii) thanks the member churches of the Anglican Communion for their engagement with the Proposals.

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Get more information about IASCUFO and the work of The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals

Download the Supplement from IASCUFO which outlines their most recent thinking