February 12, 2010

Representatives of Anglican Churches in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and the United States together with Anglican Church-backed non-governmental organisations conducted a fruitful discussion to design the plans and future operations of the Anglican Refugee and Migrant Network (ARMN) at the Consultation on ARMN held from 11 to 14 January 2010 at St. John's Cathedral in Hong Kong.

At the end of the four-day consultation, representatives endorsed the general objectives of the ARMN, which are to encourage coordination, consultation and action on refugee/migration issues with the Anglican Communion, with partner communions, with ecumenical agencies, and with governments within their respective Provinces; to alleviate human suffering; and to determine and eliminate the root causes which lead to forced migration and create refugees.

To facilitate the work of the ARMN, of which Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui (HKSKH – Province of Hong Kong Anglican/Episcopal Church) would be the host organisation and managing agent on behalf of the Anglican Communion, the representatives proposed that a Global Management Committee be formed to serve as the body that designs and directs the policies, strategies, and programmes of the network based on the objectives set.

The Global Management Committee will also be responsible for the hiring of a Network Coordinator who will be responsible for implementing ARMN objectives.

Pending the approval of the ACC and/or other mandated bodies, the organisations that attended the ARMN Consultation in Hong Kong will serve as the Provisional Global Management Committee.

An Executive Committee composed of HKSKH, Dean of St. John's Cathedral, the Mission For Migrant Workers in Hong Kong (MFMW) and the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) will be formed to supervise the day-to-day operations of the network through the Network Coordinator.

Hosted by HKSKH, the consultation featured sharing of work on refugees and migrants by the participants and the finalisation of the concept of the ARMN and its work to be forwarded to the Anglican Communion Office for their comments.

Attending the consultation were: the Very Revd Andrew Chan of St. John's Cathedral (Hong Kong), the Rt Revd David Lai of Taiwan Episcopal Church (Taiwan), the Revd Joachim Kim of Towards Peace in Korea (South Korea), Ms. Deborah Stein of Episcopal Migration Ministries (USA), the Revd Dwight dela Torre (Hong Kong), Ms. Cynthia Abdon-Tellez of the MFMW and Mr. Ramon Bultron of the Hong Kong-based regional group APMM.

Anglican Communion News Service, London