Canadian-Anglican priest appointed to international commission

Canon Alyson Barnett-Cowan, director of the Anglican Church of Canada’s faith, worship, and ministry department, has been appointed to a new international body that will oversee the ecumenical life of the 77-million strong Anglican Communion.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams announced Ms. Barnett-Cowan’s appointment to the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission for Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) on July 1.

Canon John Gibaut, who is a Canadian-Anglican and director of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches’ Commission on Faith and Order, has also been appointed, along with 18 other representatives from provinces across the Communion. Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi, primate of the Anglican Church of Burundi, will chair the IASCUFO.

The commission will help to promote “the deepening of Communion” between the Anglican Communion and other Christian churches and traditions, according to the Anglican Communion News Service (ACNS). It will advise Anglican provinces, primates, the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC)and the Archbishop of Canterbury on “all questions of ecumenical engagement, as well as on questions of Anglican faith and order,” said ACNS. It will also keep the provinces and the Instruments of Communion abreast of developments in the area of faith, order, and unity among the church’s ecumenical partners. (The Instruments of Communion are the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference of Bishops, the ACC, and the primates’ meeting.)

The new body will “take forward” the work of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations and the Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission, said a press statement from the Anglican Communion News Service.

The other members of IASCUFO include: Bishop George Titre Ande (Congo), Archdeacon Dapo Asaju (Nigeria), Canon Paul Avis (England), Bishop Philip Baji (Tanzania), Bishop Howard Gregory (West Indies), Rev. Katherine Grieb (United States), Canon Clement Janda (Sudan), Rev. Edison Muhindo Kalengyo (Uganda), Bishop Victoria Matthews (New Zealand), Canon Charlotte Methuen (England), Rev. Simon Oliver (England), Bishop Stephen Pickard (Australia), Andrew Pierce (Ireland), Canon Michael Nai Chiu Poon (Southeast Asia), Rev. Sarah Rowland Jones (South Africa), Rev. Jeremiah Yang (Korea), Bishop Tito Zavala (Southern Cone).