IMPACT

The Revd Canon Dr Stephen Spencer on Theological Education in the Anglican Communion.

 
 

Theological Education in the Anglican Communion

 
 

The Anglican Communion Office is grateful to St Augustine’s Foundation for its generous support for TEAC (the department for Theological Education in the Anglican Communion at the Anglican Communion Office). The work of this department had been suspended for several years until St Augustine’s began five years of grant support in 2018 for work in three areas:

  1. building networks of mutual learning and encouragement across theological colleges, seminaries and courses in the Anglican Communion;

  2. commissioning and producing study materials on under-resourced areas of the curriculum, for the ACO website with open access for all, in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese;

  3. encouraging theological education at every level, from education for discipleship through to preparing bishops for the Lambeth Conference. This is a project for medium and long term impact on the culture as well as the content of theological education in the churches of the Communion.

Here are some recent highlights:

  • TEAC hosted a conference for global South theologians in 2019 at Limuru, Kenya, on the renewal of prayer and the religious life, which included the Archbishop of Canterbury, with production of a conference book, joining two previous conference books it produced on reconciliation and evangelism, for distribution across the Communion in 2020;

  • The recruitment of Dr Paul Ueti as assistant director of TEAC for Lusophone, Francophone and Spanish speaking regions of the Anglican Communion and Rev Jolyon Tricky as Education for Discipleship co-ordinator, joining the director, Canon Dr Stephen Spencer, and the Education for Mission project manager, Dr Muthuraj Swamy, a staff team from three continents;

  • Networking visits to theological colleges in South Africa, Hong Kong, Australia (four colleges), Malaysia, US (two) and Ireland, and participation in the Commission for Theological Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the American Academy of Religion. Teaching was also provided for two dioceses in El Salvador and at the Asian Theological Academy in Sri Lanka and Taiwan;

  • Publication of four editions of the new TEAC Resources Bulletin, sent electronically to all theological colleges and seminaries across the Communion, containing links to a range of online resources on topics such as education for discipleship, Biblical hermeneutics and Anglican and ecumenical doctrine, in English, Portuguese, Spanish and French;

  • Support for the Lambeth Conference with the design of conference seminars, and for the Women’s department with production of theological study materials on gender justice.

The Revd Canon Dr Stephen Spencer
Director of Theological Education
Anglican Communion Office