This Month, the Anglican Alliance says thank you to Executive Director, Revd Canon Rachel Carnegie, who has worked with the Anglican Alliance since it’s inception. Moving on to the next chapter of her vocation, she’ll be succeeded by Rob Dawes, who starts as Executive Director this week. Anglican News spoke to Rachel Carnegie about some of the highlights and why the work of the Anglican Alliance is so important.
When did you start working for the Anglican Alliance?
I started working for the Anglican Alliance as co-executive director in January 2014 alongside Revd Andy Bowerman. Before that I had served for five years as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Secretary for International Development. A significant part of that role was to facilitate a Communion-wide consultation to envision and develop the Anglican Alliance, which was launched in 2011.
Why are you moving on and what's next?
Having been part of the creation of the Anglican Alliance from 2009 and then leading the superb team over the last decade, I discerned that now was the right time to step back and make space for new leadership in this next season. I have absolutely loved every moment of my time at the Anglican Alliance and now hand it on with confidence in its future. I will continue to serve the Anglican Communion as I am called and will combine this with a part-time role as chaplain at All Souls College Oxford.
How did the Anglican Alliance start - what led to its formation?
The Anglican Alliance was first conceived at the 2008 Lambeth Conference. The Bishop of Peru told the bishops that his diocese had suffered a terrible earthquake and asked: “Where was the Communion?” At the same time there was also a desire amongst Communion relief and development agencies to achieve better coordination and impact through collaboration. And so the idea of the Anglican Alliance was born. After three years of consultation globally and in regions across the Communion, the Anglican Alliance was launched in 2011, under the leadership of its first director, Sally Keeble.
Why is the work of the Anglican alliance important? What need does it serve?
The Anglican Alliance serves as a platform to help connect, equip and inspire the worldwide Communion family of churches and agencies in transforming the world through development, relief and advocacy. As part of the Body of Christ spread across 165 countries, it is important that no church ever feels alone in facing a crisis. The Anglican Alliance serves to convene and connect the Communion’s churches and agencies, which all have gifts, expertise and resources to share in being God’s church for God’s world. Its vision is about holistic mission: bringing the good news of the kingdom in word and action, as whole-life disciples reflecting Jesus’ love, responding to human need, challenging unjust structures, seeking peace, and safeguarding creation. The Anglican Alliance has been called a visible sign of koinonia, of shared fellowship, partnership and commitment to the common life of the Communion.
How does the Anglican Alliance work?
The role of the Anglican Alliance is to connect and share capacity, skills, learning and resources across the worldwide Anglican Communion, present in 165 countries, to support its work in development, relief and advocacy. This global reach gives the Anglican Alliance work significant scale and potential. Its three pillars of work support the Communion within the context of the Anglican Marks of Mission in development, relief and resilience and advocacy.
The work is all grounded in an asset-based approach, whether at community level, or in gathering the assets of the Communion as a whole.
The Anglican Alliance Global Team
You have developed a global team - what have they meant to you?
A great delight of leading the Anglican Alliance is the daily interaction with the superb global team. All are leaders, working on regional facilitation and global thematic issues. When we come together it is an extraordinary joy and inspiration to hear the diversity of perspectives and wisdom from across the world, in a space of deep respect, fellowship and mutuality. The same is true of the Anglican Alliance board meetings, with informed and experienced trustees drawn from across the Communion.
Why is partnership so valuable to the Anglican Alliance?
The Alliance works with a range of Anglican and Episcopal agencies and churches as well as Communion networks. Their partnerships and perspectives from each region bring a contextual depth and richness which informs the work of the Anglican Alliance as a whole. Together we can share our skills, assets and resources to synergise efforts and make a greater impact. We also work with ecumenical agencies, including the ACT Alliance, with other denominations, and with partners in the wider international development sector, to combine expertise and resources for our shared goals.
What are the 3 biggest issues you think the Anglican Alliance needs to address in the world?
The world is becoming an increasingly challenging and complex place, especially with the intersection of conflict, environmental crises, forced migration, deepening inequalities, and political polarisation. This is the context for the Communion as a whole. The Anglican Alliance is called to help churches navigate these challenges, drawing on theological and scriptural foundations alongside the best development practice to re-imagine our world together’ We will be called together to develop our ‘prophetic imagination’, to speak out in advocacy for the transformation of unjust structures towards building peace and well-being.
Secondly, with these existential challenges, the need for humanitarian aid will only increase, with a call for just responses to share these burdens globally. The Anglican Alliance can respond by taking its Partners in Resilience and Response initiative to scale across the Communion, to build capacity in preparing for and mitigating the impact of disasters and managing the response. Alongside this, the Anglican Alliance can help to build partnerships with ecumenical and secular bodies to coordinate responses and share resources and advocate for global equity.
Finally, the Anglican Alliance has a role in mutually sustaining hope, amidst all these challenges. We have long followed the calling to be ‘Midwives of Hope’, a phrase coined by the South African theologian Steve de Gruchy. This came to the fore in the Covid Pandemic, to identify positive, practical ways forward, to reflect and pray together to find light in the darkness, and to know ourselves to be Easter People.
What have you been most proud of during your time? Greatest achievements?
While I take great delight in many things, there are three things that stand out.
- Our response to the COVID19 crisis. When the pandemic struck in early 2020, the Anglican Alliance immediately mobilised its regional and global networks to gather information on what was happening and to share learning and prayer to guide and encourage the churches’ responses. This work continued for two years, led by a global task force, to give accompaniment to national churches and to provide information, practical responses, spiritual reflection, and coordinated advocacy. The Anglican Health and Community Network was born out of this experience.
- Our courses building skills and networks amongst emerging leaders. The Anglican Alliance is currently rolling out two courses globally: the ‘Agents of Change’ course equipping for asset-based community development, and the ‘Resilience Course’ for strengthening community preparedness and disaster response. In particular, our partnership with the Anglican Communion Youth Network inspires us with the talent and vision of young Anglican leaders.
- The Communion Forest. This concept was developed as a legacy of the 2022 Lambeth Conference. Since then, it has grown and flourished as a global initiative with multiple local expressions of eco-system protection, conservation and restoration. It is an act of Christian hope for renewing the life of the earth across the Anglican Communion.
Rob Dawes, the newly appointed Executive Director of the Anglican Alliance
As you pass on the mantle to Rob Dawes what are your biggest hopes and encouragements to the Anglican Alliance?
I am very excited about the next stage for the Anglican Alliance under Rob Dawes’ leadership. He brings excellent skills and experience from his time at Mothers’ Union, with a deep love and knowledge of the Communion. I know that he will work with the team to consult widely on the next steps to bring innovation, integration and impact to the work.
The Anglican Alliance is inspired by the vision of Ubuntu – a vision of mutuality and interdependence as the Body of Christ. The African-Zulu concept of Ubuntu describes how our humanity is defined and fulfilled in relation to the humanity of others – and indeed to of all God’s creation. “I am only because we are.” In this sense, the Anglican Alliance is only because we all are. The Anglican Alliance flourishes because it is the expression of interdependence across the churches and agencies and people of the Communion, as they respond to God’s mission for fullness of life for all, flourishing with our common home, the earth. This vision of mutuality, of what it means to be a member of the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:26) is at the heart of the Anglican Alliance. It has been our deepest blessing and guidance as we seek to ‘do justice, love mercy and kindness, and walk humbly with our God’ (Micah 6:8), walking humbly also with fellow humans and all creation.
My biggest hope and encouragement for the Anglican Alliance in the next season is to return to this vision constantly in prayer, to be transformed by engaging contextually with Scripture, by learning from one another’s expertise, and by listening to those most impacted by the world’s crises, who have their own wisdom and solutions to offer for the transformation of all.