Via ACNS
The Anglican Communion has appointed former BBC journalist Adrian Butcher as its new director for communications. He will take up the post immediately after Easter.
Adrian brings a wealth of journalism experience to the role. He began his career in newspapers before joining the BBC in 1990 as a producer in its national radio newsroom where he wrote and edited news summaries and bulletins across the range of radio networks. He also worked on television, as a producer on the One and the Six o’clock news bulletins, and for the BBC World Service and at the parliamentary unit in Westminster.
“The Anglican Communion is an amazing global family which it will be a privilege to serve,” Adrian said today. “I want to build on the excellent work already done here to communicate what that family is doing – whether it is in the corridors of power or among the world’s poorest communities.
“There are so many stories to tell and, with the revolution we are witnessing in communications, I hope to make it easier to get those stories told and shared.”
Read more of the press release here.
Butcher’s anticipated start date immediately after Easter puts him in position to cover communications from the upcoming Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Lusaka this April. The ACC meets in the wake of the Primates’ gathering this past January, which requested that the Episcopal Church refrain from voting on matters of doctrine and representing the Anglican Communion in ecumenical dialogue.
Yesterday, also according to ACNS, Archbishop Joshua Idowu-Fearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, invited
“all our members in every Province, as well as our ecumenical partners, to join us in this prayer as we prepare for the meeting of this Instrument of our Communion.”
The role of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) is to facilitate the co-operative work of the churches of the Anglican Communion, exchange information between the Provinces and churches, and help to co-ordinate common action. It advises on the organisation and structures of the Communion, and seeks to develop common policies with respect to the world mission of the Church, including ecumenical matters.
Gracious and Heavenly Father,
we thank You for Your love for the whole world in the death, resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ.
We bless You for Your Church Universal called to represent You to the world, and our Communion as a part of that Church.
We praise You for the unity You give to the Church, and confess our faults that have created disunity.
As we prepare for ACC-16 in Lusaka, we ask You O Lord that all who will represent their Provinces may be blessed with good health, holy wisdom and loving and healing words.
We give thanks and pray for Archbishop Albert Chama, the Bishops and all our other brothers and sisters in the Province of Central Africa, that You will provide for all their needs as they prepare to host this meeting.
We pray for the Anglican Communion Office staff in their preparations.
When we encounter differences and difficulties, may Your Holy Spirit take pre-eminence and over-rule to Your glory and honour.
So may all that we think, say and do, echo our Lord’s prayer that Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
We pray all these through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen
The Rt Revd Ian Douglas, Bishop of Connecticut, the Revd Gay Clark Jennings, President of the House of Deputies of the General Convention, and Rosalie Simmonds Ballentine, lay person and deputy to the General Convention from the Virgin Islands are the Episcopal Church’s representatives to the Anglican Consultative Council.
Photo: Adrian Butcher via ACNS