The Anglican Centre in Rome

Online Seminar - ‘The Future Has Arrived’: A Decolonial Reading of the Global Anglican Future Conference’s G26 Abuja Affirmation will be the theme of the Anglican Centre in Rome’s next seminar on Thursday, 11 June 2026, at 6.00 pm (Central European Time).

The Centre runs a series of seminars throughout the academic year. This will be the final seminar of this academic year and will be held entirely online.

Our main speaker for this seminar, Dr Ishaya Anthony, is Canon Theologian of the Anglican Diocese of Kwoi, Nigeria, and a Research Fellow in the University of Johannesburg’s Department of Religious Studies. He has also served as the inaugural Commonwealth Theologian-in-Residence at Westminster Abbey, in London.

In his presentation, he will note that the 2026 Global Anglican Future Conference (G26) represents a kairos moment in the Anglican Communion and marks a significant shift in ecclesiology, theology, mission, and authority structures. Its concluding statement, the Abuja Affirmation, has attracted both commendation and criticism within and outside the Anglican family.

A response will be given by Dr Christopher Wells, the Anglican Communion’s Director of Unity, Faith and Order. As such, he supports the work of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order which has developed the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals, addressing Anglican identity and leadership strucutres. The Proposals will be discussed at the meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Belfast this month.

Following the input from our two speakers, there will be an opportunity for questions and discussion with seminar participants.

How can I register?
To express your interest in attending, please contact us at [email protected]

Caption: St Matthias House in Abuja, the venue of the G26 meeting in March of this year. Credit: Advent Cable Network Nigeria (ACNN).

In our latest seminar yesterday evening (Thursday, 21 May), we had the opportunity to learn about how Anglicanism developed in Hamburg and how the city’s churches work together today in a new expression of faith in the Hafen City district.

Mats Nowak, who studies theology through the University of Hamburg (and is currently on placement at the Pontifical Gregorian University) presented on the history of the Anglican chaplaincy (Englische Kirche), which currently meets in the Church of St Thomas à Becket. He was joined online by Stephan Dreyer, from the Archdiocese of Hamburg, who chairs the Ecumenical Forum (Ökumenische Forum) in HafenCity – a space created for prayer, community and inspiration.

The unique history of the Anglican congregation, as the only non-Lutheran group allowed to worship in public in Hamburg in the first 200 years after the Reformation, built stronger connections between the city and England and aided the development of Church of England chaplaincies across the continent. Our discussion covered many of the nuances of being an expatriate worshipping community and relating to the locations in which God has placed us.

Details of our next seminar, with the Revd Dr Ishaya Anthony, a Nigerian Anglican theologian discussing GAFCON’s G26 Abuja Affirmation, will follow soon. For now, please feel free to make a date in your diary for this on Thursday, 11 June, at 6.00pm Central European Time.

It was a real pleasure to host a buffet dinner last night for the great team of volunteers and musicians who helped make our various events during the Archbishop of Canterbury's recent visit such a success.

A wonderful opportunity to celebrate, make new connections and express thanks - including to the New Chamber Singers, choirs of All Saints' & St Paul's Within the Walls, and those who were not able to come.