Date: May 26, 2026
The end of the academic year brings the opportunity to look back and reflect on the gifts and challenges that have come our way. This past year CACS has been grateful to host an abundance of visitors from across the Anglican Communion: Paula del Mello Alves from Brazil, Saleem Kasabreh from Palestine, Chuck Robertson from The Episcopal Church, Richard Sewell from Jerusalem, Dean Joseph Bain-Doodu from Ghana, Bishop Mark Edington from Europe, Bishop Anthony Poggo from London and Sudan, Dr. John Lewis from Iona Collaborative-Texas, Bishop Dalcy Dlamini from Eswatini, Bishop Kahwa Njojo from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Rev. Malcolm Guite from the UK, the Rev. Mark Michael of the Living Church Foundation, Bishop Daniel Gutierrez of the Compass Rose Society and Abp. Cyril Ben-Smith of the Province of West Africa.
However, for certain guests, getting a visa was a real challenge. We had 5 potential visitors who were unable to get into the country. Though we were able to accommodate Bishop James Lule Kenyi from South Sudan with a virtual forum hour. We know visa problems will continue to be an issue in the coming years so are starting even earlier in our support of applications and preparing ourselves to pivot when denials occur.
We were also thrilled with the 8 Scriptural Reasoning sessions we hosted with the Rumi Forum this year and the increasing numbers of students who attended over the course of the 2 semesters. A fall session with Jacques Hadler enabled us to continue to promote Family Systems Theory as an important area for leadership development. We continued our partnership with the Rose Castle Foundation hosting a fall training on Reconciliation and Scriptural Reasoning. Our efforts to get this same group of students to Rose Castle for more training in May fell short as Rose Castle’s plans for accommodation fell through but we are already working on a plan for next year. We also supported several Anglican encounters at locations across the communion: at Compass Rose in London and a cross-cultural education program in Turkey. Of course, one of the highlights of the year was the installation of the Archbishop of Canterbury Dame Sarah Mullally and we were delighted that more than 60 people turned out for our watch party for that historic event.
In coming days we’ll share about our new grant from the St. Augustine Foundation that brought additional opportunities for Anglican encounters.
Natalie Ward, Hartley Hobson Wensing, and Katherine Grieb