The annual meeting of the archbishops and bishops of the Anglican Community was held in Cambridge (England), from 10 to 16 April. It was the last such meeting under the presidency of the archbishop of Canterbury, George L. Carey, who is the spiritual leaders of 70 million Anglicans throughout the world. The first meeting goes back to 1998, when the archbishop proposed to the Primates of the 38 independent Anglican Churches to meet together annually to exchange views on questions linked to their own ministry. The meeting has the nature of a retreat during which the bishops not only discuss current issues but meet together for prayer and biblical reflection. At the end of the meeting, the Anglican Primates issued a statement in which they express concern about the spiral of violence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which, they say, “creates widows and orphans, desperate fathers and mothers and intensifies the hatred and bitterness of both sides in the conflict”. “We affirm the Anglican bishops condemn the suicide attacks and the military incursions as damaging and futile. We don’t see how these acts can lead to peace, justice and security for the Holy Land and its peoples”. “We fully support concludes the document the Alexandria Declaration of the religious leaders of the Holy Land, who affirmed that, according to the Moslem, Christian and Jewish faith, the killing of an innocent human being in the name of God is a profanation of his holy Name and we unite ourselves with the pledges assumed by the religious leaders in this declaration”.
