Anglican leaders have unveiled an ambitious plan to plant or restore one million churches across the Anglican Communion over the next decade, saying the effort is intended to bring the church closer to communities around the world while welcoming an estimated 20 million new believers.
The proposal, known as Vision36, was presented during the 19th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Belfast by the Anglican Communion Commission for Evangelism and Discipleship. The initiative calls on every Anglican province, diocese and parish to take part in church planting and the renewal of struggling congregations between 2026 and 2036.
Canon Robert Sihubwa of the Church of the Province of Central Africa said the vision is rooted in making the church more accessible to people everywhere.
"It’s a vision to take the church to the world, as close to the people as possible, so that nobody has to walk a long distance to find the nearest Anglican church," Sihubwa told members of the Anglican Consultative Council, according to the Anglican Communion News Service.
Sihubwa also challenged delegates to think boldly about the church's mission.
"Anglicanism has something to offer to the world. We have a message to offer. We have a community to offer. We have a mindset to offer to each. We have something to offer and (we can do it by) planting one million churches in the next ten years," he said, according to The Living Church.
The Vision36 proposal seeks not only to establish new congregations but also to revive churches that have declined. Anglican leaders said renewed congregations will count toward the one million church goal alongside newly planted fellowships.
The proposal also links the initiative to JC2033, a global movement marking the 2000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Anglican leaders believe the milestone offers an opportunity for churches around the world to renew their commitment to evangelism and discipleship.
Africa at the core of the goal
Although the initiative is global, Africa is expected to play a significant role in its success.
The continent is home to the largest Anglican population in the world. According to a 2025 Pew Research Center analysis, sub-Saharan Africa is now home to 30.7% of the world's Christians, overtaking Europe as the region with the largest share of the global Christian population.
The proposal itself does not assign numerical targets to individual continents or provinces. Instead, it invites every member church of the Communion to contribute according to its local context.
Africa's prominence was also reflected in the presentation of the proposal. Sihubwa, who introduced Vision36, serves in the Church of the Province of Central Africa. During the council's discussions, delegates from Kenya and South Sudan shared examples of church planting and discipleship initiatives already taking place in their countries.
According to The Living Church, a delegate from Kenya said church schools provide opportunities to establish new congregations, while Bishop Joseph Bilal of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan said a province-wide prayer initiative has helped churches multiply.
The proposal has also drawn attention because it comes at a time when Christianity continues to grow rapidly across Africa while many churches in Europe experience declining attendance.
Research by the Pew Research Center has consistently shown that the center of global Christianity has shifted toward Africa over the past several decades. Africa is now home to hundreds of millions of Christians and is expected to account for an even larger share of the world's Christian population in the coming years.
That demographic shift is increasingly influencing the priorities of global Christian organizations, including the Anglican Communion, which now looks to many African churches as leaders in evangelism, church planting and discipleship.
The Rev. Eleanor Sanderson of the Church of England said the Vision36 proposal grew out of work by Anglican commissions that realized evangelism and discipleship could not be separated.
"We found that we couldn’t talk about one without mentioning the other," Sanderson said, according to The Living Church.
Former Archbishop Nick Drayson of the Anglican Church of South America also expressed confidence that the Communion has already laid important foundations for the initiative.
Drayson said Vision36 builds on the Anglican Communion's Decade of Intentional Discipleship, which has helped deepen the understanding of discipleship across member churches and produced training resources used throughout the Communion.
The council brings together bishops, clergy and lay representatives from Anglican churches in more than 165 countries to discuss mission, unity and the future direction of the Communion.
If adopted and widely embraced, Vision36 would represent one of the largest coordinated church planting efforts ever undertaken by the Anglican Communion.
