Vancouver, Canada -- Hundreds of black Anglicans from around the world are to converge this month on Toronto, Canada, for the third international conference on Afro-Anglicanism."We will be celebrating the gifts of our common heritage within the Anglican Communion," said the Rev. Stephen Fields, chair of the local planning committee for the gathering, which will meet under the theme, "Celebrating the Gifts of Afro-Anglicans", from 20 to 27 July.
"The theme affirms the ministry of black Anglicans throughout the world," said Fields, who was born in Barbados and has ministered in Canada since 1993.
South African Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane is to attend the conference whose patrons include Mozambique Bishop Dinis Sengulane, and Ugandan-born Bishop John Sentamu who has been named as the next Archbishop of York, the second-highest post in the Church of England.
The conference is not limited to Afro-Anglicans but is open to all. Leaders of the Canadian and United States Anglican churches, which have been censured by other Anglicans especially from Africa because of their stance on homosexuality, are due to attend.
The Rev. Peter Fenty, executive assistant to the bishop of Toronto and conference chaplain, said he hoped the conference would be a model to show the wider Anglican Communion, "that even in the midst of our differences, we can still come together to share and dialogue with each other".
The first such meeting was held in Barbados in 1985, and the second was Cape Town, a decade later.
"We hope the conference will emulate the success of the first two gatherings in identifying and celebrating the gifts of Afro-Anglicanism," said Fenty.
