Our Vision
Who are the Communion Partners?
Communion Partners is an episcopally led fellowship of individuals in the provinces of the Anglican Communion devoted to promoting deeper communion in the faith of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church. With evangelical fervor, we pursue and support the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ in word and deed. In a spirit of mutual love, we commit ourselves to honoring the authority and boundaries of our local churches, working in concert with them to pursue that unity for which our Savior prayed: “That they all may be one … so that the world might believe” (John 17:12).
“We give particular thanks for the steadfast witness of our colleagues in the Communion Partners. We value and rely on their commitment to The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. We recognize that theirs is a minority voice in the House of Bishops in our deliberations with respect to Christian marriage; and we affirm that despite our differences they are an indispensable part of who we are as the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church. Our church needs their witness.”
— “Communion across Difference,” a Statement of the Mind of the House of Bishops,
at the 78th General Convention of the Episcopal Church.
As Communion Partners, we seek to act within the context of a shared commitment to prayer and to regular meetings for the purposes of learning, fellowship, encouragement, and common action. We actively encourage the historic bonds of affection across the Anglican Communion, as well as new networks and links between dioceses, parishes, and individuals. We also provide pastoral and theological resources for the churches of the Communion by supporting study and teaching.
Membership is open to all clergy and lay people who are prepared to endorse and uphold the traditional teaching of our several Books of Common Prayer and the principles of The Windsor Report and The Anglican Communion Covenant. Based primarily in the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church (spanning the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America), we seek to maintain a visible link to the whole Anglican Communion on the way to resolving important questions of faith and order.
“… it seems to be widely agreed in the Conference that internal pastoral and liturgical care, strengthened by arrangements like the suggested Communion Partners initiative in the USA … are the way we should go if we want to avoid further ecclesial confusion …”
From the “Lambeth Presidential Address” (2008), Rowan Williams,
the Rt. Rev. and Rt. Hon. The Lord Williams of Oystermouth, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury: