The newly formed Anglican Alliance, the Anglican Communion’s version of “ERD”, just completed its first meeting in Nairobi. They’ve chosen their priorities based on the priorities of CAPA (Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa). The priorities should sound very familiar to Episcopalians who know Episcopal Relief and Development’s work.
To whit:
“The key development priorities proposed by the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) and agreed by the assembly were:
- Economic empowerment, with support for micro-finance, including working on a roadmap towards an Anglican bank. (The conference heard powerful presentations on micro-finance from Peterson Kamau of Five Talents, the church’s micro-finance institution, and Moses Ochieng of the CGAP consortium of donors and development agencies.)
- Peace and reconciliation, learning from the experience of the church in countries affected by conflict.
- Governance
The conference included participants from African provinces, South America, the Caribbean, South and South East Asia, the Pacific, Canada and Australia. Included among these were representatives from the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund and AngliCORD. They provided valuable guidance and insights on the role of church-based development agencies.
[…]There was also consensus around the way forward for advocacy: being a voice for the voiceless, or the church’s prophetic mission. Economic empowerment, food security and financing of basic services were identified as the three most important areas for advocacy during the coming year, with climate change identified for 2012.”
Full report here.