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Meet the Director

Meet the Director

The Rev. A. Katherine Grieb, Ph.D. became the Director of the Center for Anglican Communion Studies (CACS) on July 1, 2021. She has served the Anglican Communion for some twenty years in many roles, on the of Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission (IATDC) and the Inter-Anglican Standing Committee on Unity, Faith, and Order (IASCUFO), among others.

Being a seminarian at Virginia Theological Seminary means joining a community and story that across centuries but also reaches out across the world and into the Anglican Communion. VTS offers a context and an education that is ecumenical, international and cross-cultural. VTS exists to form leaders for the Church, to provide continuing theological education for all and to serve the World Church and Anglican Communion.

VTS requires all candidates for the M.Div. degree to take at least three credit hours in the Department of Global Christianity and Mission (GCM). Students can fulfill these credits hours in a traditional classroom setting or through a CCEP which is a combination of both VTS classroom work and work done beyond the VTS classroom. That is to say, a CCEP is a combination of a Study Tour, Immersion, World Mission Internship, Independent Study or Semester Abroad and GCM 710 (Crossing Cultures Well: CCEP Preparation, Reflection, Integration). CCEPs give students a unique opportunity to gain new perspectives through experiencing new contexts, new cultures, new voices and new friendships. Generous funding is available for many of these CCEPs. Do take the opportunity that a VTS education offers you to enlarge your world and deepen your formation.

The Center for Anglican Communion Studies: A Short History

For almost 25 years, CACS has been a house for research and hospitality across the Anglican Communion.

The idea of CACS was first explored in the early 1990s by then Dean and President, the Very Rev. Richard Reid, Ph.D., with the intent of creating an institution to encourage reflection on World Anglicanism. Not until 1997, however, was CACS officially established. Within its first years CACS hosted visits from leaders from around the Communion. In 2007, the Rev. Barney Hawkins IV, Ph.D. was named director and CACS became more active in academic reflection. In 2013 under Dr. Hawkins’ leadership, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican Communion was published.

In 2013 Dr. Hawkins was succeeded by the Rev. Robert Heaney, Ph.D. who served as Director until 2021. I. The Center published Faithful Neighbors: Christian-Muslim Vision and Practice (Morehouse) in 2016 and God’s Church for God’s World (Church Publishing) in 2020.

Beginning in January 2021 the Center was led for six months by VTS Dean and President, the Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D., during which time he and incoming Director, the Rev. A. Katherine Grieb, Ph.D., moderated a three-day virtual sabbatical for Archbishop Justin Welby. In July 2021, Dr. Grieb, Professor Emerita of Biblical Interpretation and New Testament, became Director and launched a year-long focus on the Anglican Communion and Latin America.

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