THE Archbishop in Jerusalem, Dr Hosam Naoum, is to be certainly one of the five representatives of the worldwide Anglican Communion who help to come to a decision the subsequent Archbishop of Canterbury.
The names of the Communion representatives were announced on Tuesday morning, together with those chosen from among the many central members elected by the General Synod for a five-year term.
Previously, the Canterbury Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) has had just one representative of the Anglican Communion, but this was increased to 5 after a Synod vote in 2022 (News, 9 July 2022).
There is one representative for every of the five continents. Dr Naoum is listed because the representative for Asia, and is joined by one other member of the episcopate: the Bishop of Llandaff, the Rt Revd Mary Stallard, representing Europe.
Oceania is represented by Canon Isaac Beach, who serves within the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. According to a 2019 story on the Anglican Communion News Service, he was previously a youth representative on the Anglican Consultative Council, and is a Maori of Ngati Porou, Ngati Kahungunu, and Ngati Rangitihi descent.
The representative from Africa is the Revd Professor Grace Nkansa Asante, who teaches economics at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. The university’s website says that she can be a priest serving on the Archbishop Thomas Cranmer Church on the campus.
The only lay Communion representative is Joaquín Philpotts, an industrial engineer from Buenos Aires, representing the Americas. He currently represents the Anglican Church of South America on the Anglican Consultative Council, and is a lay minister.
A spokesperson for the Anglican Communion Office said that the representatives were confirmed by the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in May last 12 months. “Each Province was asked to bring names that met the standards to regional discussion which took place on the Primates’ Meeting in April 2024,” the spokesperson said.
The Standing Orders of the General Synod don’t specify how the representatives from the Communion are to be chosen, but set out criteria: that the five members include a minimum of one primate, one priest or deacon, and one lay person; that the members include a minimum of two men and two women; and that a minimum of three of the members are of Global Majority Heritage.
A shortlist of three names from each region were recommend to the Standing Committee of the ACC, which made the ultimate nominations in accordance with the standards.
The CNC’s central members are drawn from those elected by the General Synod in 2022. Six pairs of representatives were elected, three lay and three clergy. Ordinarily, certainly one of each pair would sit on any given diocesan CNC. Several have ceased to be Synod members since 2022, nonetheless, and so aren’t any longer eligible.
This signifies that several members were, in effect, already certain to be a part of the CNC, as they were not a part of a pair. Christina Baron (Bath & Wells) and Clive Scowen (London) were on this position, and were duly within the list announced on Tuesday, along with Debbie Buggs (London).
The clergy representatives are the Revd Claire Lording (Worcester), the Revd Lis Goddard (London), and Canon Paul Cartwright (Leeds). Canon Cartwright was not elected as a part of a pair, but has been chosen as a substitute for the pair of Canon Andrew Cornes (Chichester) and the Revd Paul Benfield (Blackburn).
Canon Cornes is currently subject to a Clergy Discipline Measure process over his handling of disclosures of John Smyth’s abuse (News, 28 February) and was not expected to participate within the CNC.
A spokesperson for Lambeth Palace confirmed that Fr Benfield was also not collaborating in the method, and had not nominated a substitute, leaving the choice to the Prolocutor of the Lower House of the Convocation of York, the Revd Kate Wharton
Fr Benfield has been approached for comment.
The only CNC members still to be announced are the diocese of Canterbury representatives, to be chosen by the vacancy-in-see committee. The election of the committee, nonetheless, has been beset by procedural issues.
A version of the committee constituted before the resignation of Archbishop Welby was deemed to not have been properly elected, owing to candidates’ being drawn solely from the diocesan synod.
A subsequent election to the committee held in early 2025, nonetheless, was also later considered improperly conducted under Rule 75 of the Church Representation Rules, which states that somebody who will mechanically be elected owing to a scarcity of other eligible candidates needs to be faraway from the voting paper.
The full membership of the Canterbury CNC was presupposed to be announced in mid-March, in time for a planned first meeting in May. The Church Times understands that a May meeting should still be possible, because the election process for the vacancy-in-see committee is to be re-run later this week.
The CNC for Canterbury is accomplished by the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, who was elected by the House of Bishops because the episcopal representative for the Southern Province (News, 19 March).
As CNC members, Archbishop Cottrell and Bishop Usher can’t be chosen as the subsequent Archbishop of Canterbury. In March, Bishop Usher said: “Despite speculation in recent months, I actually have felt no sense of inner calling to be Archbishop of Canterbury.”
As CNC members, Bishop Stallard and Dr Naoum are also ineligible.
Lord Evans of Weardale, a former director-general of MI5 and a cross-bencher within the House of Lords, is to chair the CNC (News, 20 December 2024).
