(Via email-KSH).
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am sending my quarterly Provincial Letter a few weeks early as I have good news to report.
First, greetings from Christ Church Plano, where I am attending the G25 GAFCON Global Mini Conference, along with 120 Primates and Bishops from around the world. This gathering, organized by +Paul Donison, the General Secretary for GAFCON, is an endeavor to introduce our most recently elected Bishops to the history of, and our deep roots in, GAFCON.
As I have reported in previous updates, over the past several months we have been engaging in a restructuring process, which has included a review of our current provincial staff structure and functions, the audit and assessment of our current internal systems and platforms, the development of a new organizational chart, and the recruitment and screening of candidates for four new Director roles.
Before I introduce you to our four new Directors, I wanted to offer a few words of thanks. First, and most profoundly, I am grateful to and appreciate the work of Deborah Tepley. Her commitment to Jesus Christ and His church is deep, inspiring, and gives guidance to her life and work. Deborah has led our restructuring work these past several months with excellence and the whole of our Province is indebted to her.
Secondly, our Restructuring Committee, an ad hoc committee of the Executive Committee, has been meeting regularly since November and guiding this process for the Province. The work of this Committee, comprised of Dr. Joan Deeks, Sheryl Vittitoe, Bishop Ryan Reed, and Deborah Tepley, is now completed. I am incredibly grateful for the time, effort and expertise this Committee has contributed over these past months. I am also grateful for the support of those who made up our interview teams, which included Jonathan Millard+, +Steve Breedlove, Sheryl Vittitoe, Lee Hilts, and Jeff Weber+.
As a part of our overall structural changes, we are changing Deborah Tepley’s title from Chief Operating Officer to Executive Director, as this reflects the full extent of her role and is a title typical in a non-profit setting.
Now, onto introductions. We have hired four Directors: Director of Outreach and Development, Director of Administration and Operations, Director of Safeguarding and Canonical Affairs, and Director of Finance (fractional). I am providing the names and bios of our four new hires below. Please join me in welcoming this incredibly talented and experienced group to the Provincial staff team.
Kate Harris, our new Director of Outreach and Development, brings a diverse background in non-profit and ministry leadership, most recently serving as the founder and principal of Pulley Advising, a strategy firm helping mission-driven clients grow their impact. She began her career as a press officer for the Colorado State Senate and worked in strategic communications for U.S. Senate leadership. She later helped found and manage stakeholder relationships for Wedgwood Circle, supported business development for the University of Oxford Estates Division, and managed special projects for Oxford Analytica, a global consultancy. Subsequently, Kate served as Interim Executive Director of The Fellows Initiative and as Executive Director of The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, and Culture, where she authored Wonder Woman: Navigating the Challenges of Motherhood, Career, and Identity (Zondervan, 2014) and was Assistant Producer of ReFrame, a 10-week film-based course developed by Regent College to help Christians connect their faith with all areas of life. She has an MA in English Literature, was an Ingram scholar at Vanderbilt University, and graduated with a BS in Journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Kate and her family are active members of Restoration Anglican Church (Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic) in Arlington, Virginia, a church plant of The Falls Church Anglican, where she worshipped for more than 17 years after first arriving as a Falls Church Fellow in 2002. Kate is wife to a good man and mother to their four children. Kate says, “I am so grateful for Anglicanism’s faithful witness and practices that prioritize unity and shared hope in Christ. I am excited to learn from all of the amazing ministry leaders who have built the Church into what it is today, and I’m eager to help discern and contribute to its next season of mission and growth.”
Dr. Tiffany Butler, our new Director of Safeguarding and Canonical Affairs, possesses a rare blend of extensive religious and theological studies focused on practical theology, canon law, and ethics, practical experience supporting the canonical presence of the church in the world and in ecumenical dialogue, and approximately six years’ professional experience as an Ethics and Compliance Specialist focused on Safeguarding with World Concern, a Christian international transformational development organization. Dr. Butler holds a PhD in Ethics and Practical Theology from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Divinity. Her thesis examined the intersection of migration, ecclesiologies, and canon law. Dr. Butler also holds an MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary with an emphasis in Just Peacemaking and two BAs – one from Seattle Bible College in Practical Theology with a Global Outreach major and another from the University of Washington’s Jackson School of International Studies in the Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Peace, and Security track. Dr. Butler is a competent, fluent, and sympathetic communicator, and she has over 20 years of experience working locally and internationally among faith-based organizations in Belize, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, and Kenya.
Dr. Butler has been a member of the ACNA and her local parish of Holy Trinity Edmonds (Diocese of Cascadia) in Washington State since 2018. She quickly became involved as a researcher for the Orthodox Church in America and the Anglican Church in North America (OCA/ACNA) Ecumenical Dialogue Task Force, particularly concerning rapprochement and canonical affairs. Dr. Butler also served as a lay member of the Cascadia Diocesan Council and a lay representative at GAFCON 2023.
Dr. Butler enjoys worshiping with her local church family at Holy Trinity Edmonds, and she is excited to serve the wider ACNA Province as the Director of Safeguarding and Canonical Affairs. She says, “I am passionate about the Church being a safe place for all, particularly for vulnerable individuals. My vocational means of serving Christ’s Church is through relationships expressed in the living canons. Alexander Schmemann defined the quality of canonicity as that which serves to ‘assure, express, defend, and fulfill the Church as Divinely given Unity.’ My heart is to work diligently by the grace of God in Christ Jesus to ensure that our actions as a Province meet this high calling for the good of the whole in love.”
Dan Hassler, our new Director of Administration and Operations, brings a significant breadth of experience from his 14 years of service at The Moody Bible Institute. As Director of Change Management, Dan led projects and initiatives spanning every aspect of the Institute, including Education, Publishing, Finance, HR, Operations, IT, and Advancement. In his most recent position, Dan has served as the Manager of Business Analysis for the Information Technology Services department at Moody. In this role, he has been instrumental in implementing new software, meeting complex needs with efficient solutions, and developing and shepherding a team of IT experts. His greatest professional joy is identifying organizational needs and crafting meaningful solutions. Dan holds a BA degree from The Master’s College.
Dan and his family are active members of Cornerstone Anglican Church (Diocese of the Upper Midwest) in the Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago, IL, where Dan serves on the Vestry as the Treasurer. He is married to Desirée, his beloved wife of 26 years and father to four amazing kids. They live in Oak Park, IL, a Chicago suburb. In his free time, Dan enjoys reading (extensively) and playing bluegrass banjo (poorly). Dan says, “The Anglican Church has played a pivotal role in my spiritual growth in recent years and I am honored to have this opportunity to use my giftings to ensure that the ACNA flourishes for years to come.”
Keith Moore, our interim fractional Director of Finance, came to Christ at 21 and has been a serial small-business entrepreneur since graduating from Covenant College in 1976. In 2000, he decided to take his business experience and use it on behalf of churches and faith-based nonprofits. He worked with numerous nonprofits such as Mission to the World, World Hope International and International Justice Mission on enterprise software projects and served as Project Director for a multi-mission back-office support group. He served as the Director of Finance Manager at Grace DC, a PCA network of churches in Washington, DC, where he resides and also is a member. In 2014 he began working on the concept of remote business support for churches which led to founding Auxilio in 2019 which today supports over 150 churches and nonprofits in 33 states.
Keith is married to Patty (50 years this June) and they are blessed with four children and 15 grandchildren. Keith says, “I am very excited to be part of this journey that God has the ACNA on and to help the Provincial office and staff become an even more strategic, missional and helpful support to the dioceses, congregations and congregants.”
We are currently hiring for a Content and Media Relations Manager, who will support Kate Harris, as well as an Events Manager, who will report to Dan Hassler.
Last but not least, we are preparing for Provincial Council, which will be held at Trinity Anglican Seminary’s new Trophimus Center on June 18-20. This will be a smaller event for Bishops and diocesan delegates.
Please know that this letter comes with my gratitude for our shared ministry and my continued prayers.
Yours in Christ,
Archbishop Steve Wood
