Primates Standing Committee elected: The Church of England Newspaper, Feb 25, 2011 p 7.

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Anglican Communion News Service has released the results of the elections to the Primates Standing Committee.

The primates attending the Dublin meeting of primates elected one representative and one alternate for five geographical regions. While no formal rules have been established to order the primates meeting and its powers are unclear, the recent custom has been that only those primates present at the meeting vote, and each primate only votes for those in his region.  Elections for representative and alternate are held separately.

On Feb 15 ACNS reported that the Primate of the Sudan, Archbishop Daniel Deng was elected for Africa and the Primate of Burundi, Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi was elected alternate.

The Africa region includes: Burundi, Central Africa, Congo, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Southern Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and West Africa.

For the Americas, the Primate of the Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected, and Archbishop John Holder of the West Indies elected as alternate.  The Americas region includes: Brazil, Canada, Central America, the USA, Mexico, the Southern Cone and the West Indies.

For Europe, the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Bishop David Chillingworth was elected and the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr. Alan Harper elected as alternate.  Europe includes: England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

For the Middle East and West Asia, the Moderator of the Church of Pakistan, Bishop Samuel Azariah was elected, and the Moderator of the Church of Bangladesh, Bishop Paul Sarker was elected as alternate.  The West Asia region includes: Bangladesh, Jerusalem and the Middle East, North India, South India and Pakistan.

For Asia, Archbishop Paul Kwong of Hong Kong was elected, and Archbishop Winston Halapua of Polynesia was elected as alternate. The Asia region includes: Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Melanesia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Southeast Asia.

ACNS reported that “each Primate serves for a period of three years, and thereafter until the next Primates’ Meeting. Also membership ceases when a member ceases to be a Primate.”