GENEVA, 23 June 2009: The Anglican Health Network – the Communion’s newest network, approved at the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in May – held its inaugural meeting here on 15 and 16 June. The meeting, which was held partly at the World Health Organization (WHO) and partly at Geneva’s Ecumenical Centre, brought together 14 representatives of Anglican and Episcopal churches that include health facilities as part of their ministry.
Speakers included representatives of WHO, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Council of Churches (WCC), and the meeting was supported by a number of consultants with experience in health and communications.
The Anglican Health Network aims to facilitate communication between the health services within the Anglican Communion, serving as a focal point for sharing information – and potentially resources. In a new move for Anglican networks, the Health Network expects to run a number of programmes to support both its members and their clients. Thus, participants at the inaugural meeting agreed to a programme for the sharing of medical equipment of all kinds, and gave the go-ahead to a pilot project on micro-insurance for health care costs. A location for the pilot project is currently being sought.
The idea for an Anglican Health Network came from Revd Paul Holley, chaplain of the Anglican community of La Côte near Geneva, who stresses the link between faith and healing. “Health was an important part of Christ’s mission, and it plays an important role in the mission of our Communion. The network’s aim is to try and facilitate this,” Revd Holley says.
From the start, participants at the inaugural meeting agreed that the Anglican Health Network is not just about health. “The network is not just about forging links between Anglican health services in different countries,” Revd Holley says. “It’s equally about forging links between clergy and health workers. Health is more than a service, it’s a ministry.”
Church health facilities in some countries do not receive health ministry communications that are sent to government hospitals, and for many there is no rapid channel of information on health developments at international level. Nor is there much contact with church health facilities in other countries. One of the Anglican Health Network’s first tasks will be to set up a website to channel relevant health information to health workers and to encourage information-sharing from health workers and others in different parts of the Communion.
The micro-insurance project results from concern that many of the world’s poorest people simply cannot afford the health services that are on offer. Some 100 million people worldwide fall into poverty every year because they have to pay for health care, WHO says. Thus the pilot project will test the viability of a larger-scale programme of insurance that could cover the very poor against the costs of treatment for the commonest illnesses in their country – plus prenatal and antenatal care for women.
The Anglican Health Network will be coordinated from Geneva, at least for the time-being. The close link with WHO is seen as important, as is the link with the World Council of Churches’ Programme for Health and Healing. In addition, several other international bodies in the city are concerned with health issues related to their areas of interest – whether these be trade, labour standards, climate change, refugees, or disasters and emergencies.