The Rt. Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas, Bishop of Connecticut, announced that he will not stand for election as chair of the Anglican Consultative Council.
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Douglas, who had been widely expected to seek the office, sent a letter about his decision to the members of the ACC Standing Committee who were at that group’s April 6-7 meeting.
“While I pray that I can continue to be of service to the Anglican Communion in some new way in the future, I believe that my not pursuing election as chair of the ACC at this time will best facilitate our walking together in unity as the Anglican Communion, and that is my highest priority and my greatest hope and prayer,” Douglas said in his letter.
Douglas is ending his term on both the ACC and Standing Committee at the close of the ACC-16 meeting. The ACC elected Douglas in 2009 to be one of its representatives on the Standing Committee.
In his letter, Douglas, noting the end of his term, said he pledged his “ongoing support and prayers” for the Standing Committee members new and old, and for the secretary general of the Anglican Communion. “God bless the Anglican Communion in our diversity and common service to God’s mission in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit,” he wrote.
Last January, a majority of the Anglican Communion’s primates called for three years of “consequences” for the Episcopal Church in response to the 78th General Convention’s Resolution A036 and Resolution A054 that change canonical language that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman and authorized marriage rites with language allowing them to be used by same-sex or opposite-sex couples.
The primates said that they were “requiring” that for those three years the Episcopal Church not serve on ecumenical and interfaith bodies, not be appointed or elected to an internal standing committee, and “that while participating in the internal bodies of the Anglican Communion, they will not take part in decision-making on any issues pertaining to doctrine or polity.”
Douglas said in an interview April 12 that his decision not to run was “not in response to the primates’ communique per se.” Rather, my discernment has been directly informed by the relationships I enjoy here in the ACC and my commitment to fostering the unity of the Anglican Communion.”