A new chapter of the Revd Canon Dr Alyson Barnett-Cowan’s lifelong ecumenical engagement has begun with her installation as the new president of the Canadian Council of Churches (CCC) on 14 May. The current Interim Secretary General of the Anglican Communion and its former Director for Unity, Faith and Order, she was unanimously elected to a three-year term as CCC president by the council’s Governing Board. She succeeds Lt. Col. Jim Champ of the Salvation Army. A priest of the Anglican Church of Canada, for which she served several years as ecumenical officer, Canon Dr Barnett-Cowan had previously served a term as one of CCC’s vice-presidents. She brings with her a wealth of ecumenical experience, having been engaged with various inter-church dialogues and councils of churches at the local, regional, and international level. “I am delighted and honoured to have been chosen for this important voluntary position. It is wonderful to be able to put the experience I’ve gained working for the ecumenical life of the Anglican Communion to use in the service of the Canadian churches,” Canon Dr Barnett-Cowan said of her appointment.
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The Rt Revd James Tengatenga and Mrs Elizabeth Paver, Chair and Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee, Anglican Communion, have appointed the Revd Canon Dr Alyson Barnett-Cowan as Interim Secretary General. Canon Barnett-Cowan, who will retire at the end of January as Director for Unity Faith and Order, has agreed to be a half-time consultant for the position until the position of Secretary General has been filled. She will be based at her home in Canada but will work at the Anglican Communion Office for some days each month. Canon Kenneth Kearon, the present Secretary General, will leave the post at the end of December as he has been elected Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe in the Church of Ireland. His consecration date is January 24.
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As of Jan. 2, the Anglican Church of Canada will have a dedicated new advocate for ecumenism.

Archdeacon Bruce Myers, missioner of communications in the diocese of Quebec, will assume a one-year, part-time position as coordinator for ecumenical relations with the Faith, Worship and Ministry department of General Synod.

“I’ve always had a passion for ecumenism even if I didn’t always call it that,” says Myers, who is manager of the Quebec diocese’s website and editor of its newspaper, Gazette. “Early on, I recognized that it was not right that the body of Christ was divided into so many pieces.”

Myers, who holds a master’s degree in ecumenical theology from the The Ecumenical Institute of Bossey in Switzerland, now brings that passion to healing the divisions in Christendom, so much of which was united as one church for 15 centuries. “I think ordinary Christians of every denomination are questioning whether the differences are all that important when we share so much in common,” he says. “The overarching ecumenical task is how to mend those broken fences and relations.”
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Canon Alyson Barnett-Cowan has been appointed director for Unity, Faith and Order for the Anglican Communion. Ms. Barnett-Cowan is currently director of faith, worship and ministry of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, a post she has held since 1995. She was recently appointed to the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission for Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO).
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