The Anglican Church in Southern Africa has issued its report on its Anglican Provincial Synod held recently in Kwazulu Natal, outlining steps for a higher level of engagement with issues as varied as HIV/AIDS and children, as well as the agreed name change for the Church.

The Synod, held every three years, is the highest legislative body of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and included the Revd Canon Kenneth Kearon, the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion based in London, as one of numerous guests.

The Synod reaffirmed the Church’s commitment to the HIV/AIDS pandemic currently afflicting much of the African continent, promising to intensify its education programme. The programme run by the Church is designed to inform lay and ordained leaders about the disease, in a bid to break with the stigma and improve the parish-level response.

The leadership of Archbishop Ndungane on the issue was praised by Canon Kearon at the Synod.

The Synod also agreed to set up a gender task team, which will explore the possibility of a Southern African Anglican gender desk.

The desk will be commissioned with writing a report to aid dioceses and organisations in implementing gender-sensitive guidelines in their teachings and practices, scheduled for publication by 2006.

The request comes after UN statistics revealed that 75 per cent of those infected with HIV in Africa between the ages of 15 and 24 years old are women.

Children were also on the agenda as the governments of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Angola and Mozambique called on Archbishop Ndungane to provide care for orphans and vulnerable children as well as to secure the protection of their rights. The Synod agreed to place AIDS children as priority cases.

Tracking the welfare and development of babies within the communities must become a major focus for diocesan bishops, according to the Report, which called for the implementation of mechanisms which would identify and protect ‘at risk’ children from infant mortality, domestic violence and child abuse.

The hot topic of homosexuality also arose at the Synod, with speakers on both sides of the debate presenting on the issue. The presentations by Bishop Peter Lee of the Diocese of Christ the King in southern Johannesburg on the ‘conservative’ evangelical side, and Bishop of Grahamstown, David Russel, offering the liberal view, were followed up by a mother whose daughter is homosexual, as well as one homosexual woman and one homosexual man.

The Synod failed to pass any resolution on the issue but Archbishop Ndungane said: "Our discussion and debate on this issue was of a high level of maturity and has broadened our thinking and understanding. The church will continue to listen to the voice of the people and engage on this issue."

The Synod has also agreed to change the name of the Church from the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (CPSA), to the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA), in an effort to clear confusion over the term ‘province’, the Archbishop said.

Archbishop Ndungane said: "The name change will not come into effect immediately because it changes the constitution of the Anglican Church. It will only be finalised at the next session of the Provincial Synod in three years time."