During ACC-19 last week, representatives of the Anglican Communion Youth Network (ACYN) hosted a panel discussion called 'A Living Legacy: young voices and the work of peace', with the Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Most Revd Hosam Naoum.

The evening session explored the experiences of young people living in contexts of conflict and unrest and considered the role of the church in peacebuilding and advocacy.

This youth symposium fulfilled a request from the previous ACC meeting that ACC-19 include a specific opportunity to celebrate the contribution young people make to the ministry of peacebuilding. 

The session on July 1 was moderated by two ACC youth delegates who are the co-convenors of the Anglican Communion Youth Network (ACYN): Ms Agnes Chiu Ki Lam from Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui and Mr Reginald Nikoi Robertson from Ghana in the Church of the Province of West Africa. In the session, voices from around the Anglican Communion were heard, speaking about the importance of reconciliation and the role of young people and the Church in this space.

The first speaker was the Most Revd Hosam Naoum, Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, Primate of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East and Vice-Chair of the Anglican Consultative Council. Drawing on his experience of living and ministering in the Holy Land, he reflected on the challenges of peace and reconciliation in one of the most complex regions of the Anglican Communion.

Faith in times and places of conflict

The co-convenors of the youth network interviewed Archbishop Hosam about how faith has shaped reconciliation in his region. According to Archbishop Hosam, reconciliation ‘is something we long for’ as Christians but also as human beings. He affirmed the need for the Holy Spirit in the Middle East and all areas of conflict. He shared his view that ‘greed’ was at the root of many global conflicts as ‘those who have power, the one thing they want is more power’.

Speaking about the role of the Church in times of war, conflict and unrest, Archbishop Hosam remarked that ‘what you will do during the time of peace is exactly what you do at the time of war… We are reconcilers in times of peace as much as times of conflict. That’s who we are as Anglicans’. By this, he was describing the moral necessity to be a present source of light and love in any given community as a Christian or a church. As well as sharing the Good News of the Gospel, Archbishop Hosam also urged the necessity of sharing stories, both good and bad, from diverse settings with a view to sharing hope, understanding and awareness of the challenges in places different to our own.

Building a legacy of peace

Archbishop Hosam commended the ACC for engaging with the call from previous meetings to involve youth delegates, especially as voting members of the Council. One of the most important theological things people of faith have, he said, is ‘traditioning’. This means that ‘we pass on traditioning from one generation to another’ to equip new generations with the knowledge and wisdom of the older ones while embracing what is good from now.

Archbishop Hosam shared his belief that all ages of Christians should be involved in peacebuilding: ‘Youth ministry was and still [is a] big part of my vocation’. He feels that churches sometimes treat young people as if they are the ‘future of the Church’, but they are not ‘in the making… they are the present of the Church. They are the here and now’ and, as such, should not be excluded from peacemaking and church leaders should ‘invest in empowering emerging leaders’.

Regarding the legacy of peace left to young people, Archbishop Hosam said that ‘they inherit the wounds of the past…but with them comes a new and fresh hope’. He also shared the benefit of young people being able to have and see a ‘long-term vision of witnessing God’s love in the world’.

Remarking on how people of all ages and abilities may have ‘different talents’, Agnes shared that youth can offer much in terms of giving back to the Church, especially in a time of such rapid change. Agility and a mindset receptive to new ideas can benefit the Church. Agnes says young people are ‘courageous, bold and creative’, and while these are not exclusive attributes of youth, they are certainly powerful. She described young people as a keyhole to the idea that change and transformation are normal.

Reginald described a strong desire in young people to be a part of something that matters – that they wish to be part of a ‘narrative’ of change-making in their contexts. The implication of this is that youth can bring energy and a driving force for justice as well as ministry. He said, ‘If we want to achieve all Five Marks of Mission, we need young people… if we want to enrich the conversation, we need young people.’

Young voices in regions of conflict around the Communion

Many Anglican sisters and brothers are in places of conflict, unrest or war. Some of the Anglican youth shared during the session how they are seeing these themes in their individual regions and how young people and the Church can respond.

Agnes shared her experience of civic unrest in her home city of Hong Kong in recent years. She described a sense of disappointment, anger and anxiety about the future among civil society. She spoke of how the church was there for the young people in this time, she said. ‘I felt that the church was caring for me’; that she had a ‘space that I can share safely’ to talk about what was happening. Agnes also spoke about the Difference course, an international digital resource that seeks to equip people to see transformation through everyday encounters. Agnes said that this resource helped her to reframe her perspective of what reconciliation was and understand how adopting a mindset of reconciliation can impact everyday relationships.

Mr Saba Kerry, a young person and ACC delegate from Palestine in the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, shared perspectives on living in an area of historic and present conflict and his involvement through his church in creating curriculum for other young people to learn more about peacebuilding, sharing lessons about reconciliation and peacebuilding.

Saba shared in the session that in his experience, conflict is ‘deeper’ than only disagreement, that it is often ‘a result of histories, of memories, identities, inequalities, fears’ all of which are ‘relational’ issues and ‘if conflict is relational, then peacebuilding must also be relational.’

‘As a Palestinian Christian,’ Saba reflected, ‘peacebuilding for me is not something to think about in libraries or [an] academic course or a church program: It is a lived reality. It is an attitude to life. It is a daily vocation.’ Saba described young Anglicans as ‘agile’ and ‘eager’ to ‘become peacemakers in our own communities… As young people, we will continue to build those bridges…but we ask you (the Anglican Communion) to continue preparing the ground upon which those bridges can stand’.

Mr Zablon Agumbi from the Anglican Church of Kenya shared his view of the demonstrations of young people protesting against the government’s misappropriation of power and money in June 2024. He recalled that more than 100 people died, yet Zablon describes what followed this tragic event as a ‘good thing’ because, as a result, young people are becoming more ‘aware of their rights’ and using their voices for justice.

Toward the end of the session, encouragement was heard from the audience, affirming the importance of having young voices represented in churches. Comments of particular note were from a delegate from the Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, the Revd Joseph Zebedayo Bilal, who expressed his concern about young people in his region being recruited to violent causes by their elders and the Rt Revd James Sellee, a bishop in Liberia (the Church of the Province of West Africa), who echoed the challenge of preventing children as young as six from becoming child soldiers. Bishop James reflected that ‘the present is the product of the past and a seed for the future... what we do today will affect the next generation’.  

Ongoing engagement with peace and reconciliation at ACC

Peace and reconciliation have long been a central focus for the Anglican Communion and were among the key themes of the 2022 Lambeth Conference. At ACC-18 in Ghana, members also affirmed the important role of young people in God's ministry of reconciliation, as expressed in the Fourth Mark of Mission (Transform). 

Delegates to ACC-19 spent Wednesday, 1 July, in Derry/Londonderry, reflecting on the ministry of reconciliation and learning from the experience of the Irish people in finding common ground despite differences and decades of division. The session celebrating the contribution of young people in peacebuilding was held later that evening. This followed this pilgrimage to Derry/Londonderry, serving as a continuation of the topic of reconciliation and peacebuilding.

More information

Learn more about the Anglican Communion Youth Network.

See how Anglicans are involved in Peace and Reconciliation around the Communion.

Find out about the Difference Course.