Date: July 22, 2024
Hello, everyone! This week the Center for Anglican Communion Studies team is hosting the Dean’s Commentary and today we are excited to share what we’ve been up to this sizzling summer of 2024. Summer started off strong in early June with the final retreat of our Trinity Wall Street-funded Southern African young leaders cohort in the Diocese of George, South Africa. Katherine Grieb, CACS director, traveled there to reflect with the young leaders, consult on their leadership projects, preach at a celebratory “graduation” Eucharist and thank the hard-working mentors and leaders from the province. Before long, we found ourselves at General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. CACS hosted a dinner with the Episcopal Church Office of Global Partnerships for the 20 or so visiting primates, secretaries, bishops, and heads of Anglican institutions around the world who were attending the Convention. This was an invaluable opportunity to see old friends, to get to know some new ones, and to share the CACS vision and current priorities with them all! We received lots of appreciation for our work in the past and built some bridges for our coming work in the Philippines, for example, and elsewhere.
After that memorable event, Katherine Grieb flew off to the UK where, after trying flight delays, she led a 3-day retreat for ordinands to the deaconate and to the priesthood of the Diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich and preached twice at the ordinations of the deacons and of the priests at St. Edmundsbury Cathedral. Then she moved a bit south and taught at the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide (CCCW) Summer Institute on “The Bible and Poverty.” Dr. Grieb read a paper entitled “Jesus and Poverty: A Close Look at Some Difficult Texts.” Hartley Wensing, Associate Director, stayed on in Louisville for the VTS/GTS booth at General Convention and the mid-week VTS/GTS dinner where we greeted alumni and partners from around the country and the world. It was immensely gratifying to feel the love for both institutions and to help answer lots of questions about coming plans. Hats off to Dean Markham and the Institutional Advancement and Communications teams for planning such successful events. And a big thanks to CACS Coordinator Melissa Allbrandt for her work planning the CACS dinner in Louisville and for taking care of innumerable tasks as we finished out the fiscal year. During the month of July we have been preparing for our fall events and our 5th young leaders cohort in the Philippines which will begin September 9.
Come back here in the days ahead to read about some recent events with our Companions and to preview some exciting events and visitors coming in the fall.
Melissa Allbrandt, CACS Administrative Coordinator
Hartley Wensing, CACS Associate Director
Katherine Grieb, CACS Director