We are a bold and prophetic voice for all women throughout the Anglican Communion working to uphold the God-given dignity of women and girls, to eradicate gender-based inequality and violence, and to promote just relationships among all people.For we are all created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27)
The chair of the Steering Committee is the Revd Carole Hughes, Archdeacon of Auckland, and former Convenor of the Anglican Women’s Studies Centre.
How we work
All Anglican women are welcome to IAWN’s email listserv, to subscribe to its newsletters, and to join the Network’s Facebook group. To subscribe to the newsletter and/or listserv, please email rachael.fraser@anglicancommunion.org.
The Primate of each Anglican Province is invited to appoint an official link person to serve as the IAWN Provincial Link. Each Provincial Link is the liaison between the Steering Group and the women in her Province.
The IAWN Steering Group identifies, prioritises and promotes the key issues for the Network, in light of issues raised throughout the Anglican Communion. It reports to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) and seeks to ensure prompt and appropriate follow-up to ACC resolutions relating to women and girls.
The IAWN Steering Group members for 2019 – 2022 are:
Carole Hughes, Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia
Moumita Biswas, North India
Lizzi Green, England
Alice Garrick, Pakistan
Dalcy Dlamini, Swaziland, Southern Africa
Helen Van Koevering, The Episcopal Church
Mary Stallard, Wales
Mavis Russell, North India
Susan Barhoum, Jerusalem & the Middle East
Tagolyn Kabekabe, Melanesia
Paula Nesbitt, The Episcopal Church (co-opted consultant)
Our Priorities
- Promoting gender equality and the participation of women in all levels of decision-making throughout the Anglican Communion.
- Sharing the stories of women in the Anglican Communion.
- Supporting and accompanying Anglicans and others who are working to eradicate all forms of gender-based violence, including human trafficking.
- Advocating access for all women and girls to education and health care, including reproductive and maternal health care and resources.
- Advocating the eradication of extreme poverty, hunger, and environmental abuse.
- Promoting the physical and spiritual well-being of all women and girls, including those from migrant, rural, indigenous and other marginalised communities.
- Supporting women’s sustainable economic empowerment and entrepreneurship, including gender budgeting and auditing.
History
IAWN was formed in November 1996 following a consultation convened by the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) and funded by the Mothers’ Union and the United Thank Offering of the Episcopal Church Women of the Episcopal Church of the United States. Women from 14 of the (then) 32 Provinces of the Anglican Communion met in London and agreed that an international Anglican Women’s Network should be formed. Its mandate was to report the work of women, and the challenges that women face, to the ACC.
In 2006, while in New York, USA, as the Anglican Communion delegation to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, 63 women from all 38 Provinces met and elected the IAWN Steering Group for 2006 – 2009. Since then, elections for a new Steering Group have been held every three years.
