On the final morning of the formal meetings of the 17th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC-17) n Hong Kong, three new members have been elected to the Standing Committee including, for the first time, a youth member. The three newly elected members include, from the Anglican Church of Tanzania, Joyce Haji Liundi; and from the Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Hosam Elias Naoum, the Dean of St George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem. The other newly elected member is Basetsana Makena. She was attending her first ACC meeting as one of the new regional Youth Members, representing the continent of Africa, she is a member of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.

The Standing Committee is a 15-member group which includes the Archbishop of Canterbury. Seven are elected members of the ACC and five are members of the Primates’ Standing Committee. The other two members are the Chair and Vice-Chair of the ACC, elected by the members in plenary session. The Standing Committee’s function is together to assist the Churches of the Anglican Communion in advancing the work of their mission worldwide.

Joyce Liundi is 48 years old, married and has two sons. She holds several diplomas and certificates, amongst others, in leadership, clinical assistant, financial management and development studies. She has served and works as Mothers’ Union coordinator in Masasi for the last six years, has been a zonal MU co-ordinator since 2007 and facilitator for East Africa.

Basetsana Makena currently serves as the General Secretary of the Anglican Students’ Federation of Southern Africa. Commenting on ACC-17, she said: “over the last few days here at the ACC, I have had the honour of engaging with many other delegates from other provinces which have opened my eyes to a lot of challenges that other provinces are faced with and also the many triumphs which we can use to learn from. . .

“It has been so wonderful for me to learn that as both the present and the future of this Anglican Communion, the youth delegates agree on critical issues such as climate justice, gender equality, and youth empowerment through education amongst many other things.”

Dean Hosam Naoum is the first indigenous Dean of St George’s, Jerusalem. He originally served as Canon Pastor at the Cathedral from 2005 and was then the Acting Dean from 2007 to 2009. He serves as Pastor to the Cathedral’s Arabic and English-speaking congregations.

Dean Hosam completed his initial theological training at the College of the Transfiguration in South Africa. In 2011, he earned a Master of Theology degree in Canon Law from Virginia Theological Seminary in the USA. He is also the Secretary to the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem and is actively involved in the work of ecumenical and interfaith dialogue.

The newly reconfigured Standing Committee will meet for the first time this afternoon. It usually holds a week-long residential meeting each year and a number of electronic meetings. As they have met in-person at ACC-17, they will not hold another residential meeting until next year.