This one-day symposium will brought together leaders from across the global Anglican Communion and U.S.-based clergy and lay leaders curious to learn more about the possibilities and challenges of an increasingly postcolonial and polycentric Anglican Communion.
Anglican leaders from around the world will participated in the symposium as both presenters and workshop leaders. Together, we sought to better understand and appreciate differences across the Anglican Communion while engendering a deeper sense of unity and common participation in God’s mission as Anglicans globally.
The symposium celebrated the release of a new collection of essays by global Anglican leaders, Living Postcolonial Anglicanism: Prospects for a Polycentric Anglican Communion (Bloomsbury, 2025), edited by Dr. Kwok Pui Lan and the Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas.
Livestreams
Opening Presentations
Panel: Prospects for a Polycentric Anglican Communion
Evening Prayer
Schedule
* indicates that this segment will be livestreamed. The livestream will be available on this webpage.
- 8:30 - 9:30am
- Registration
- 9:00 - 9:45am
- Opening Prayer
- 9:45 - 10:15am
- Welcome & Introduction *
The Very Rev. Lydia Kelsey Bucklin and the Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas, PhD - 10:15 - 11:00am
- Opening Presentation: Living Postcolonial Anglicanism *
Dr. Kwok Pui Lan - 11:00 - 11:30am
- Break
- 11:30am - 12:45pm
- Panel: Prospects for a Polycentric Anglican Communion *
• The Rt. Rev. Victor Atta-Baffoe '92
• Dr. Jenny Te Paa-Daniel
• Archdeacon Rosalyn Kantlaht’ant Elm
• The Most Rev. Linda Nicholls
• The Rev. Cn. Stephanie Spellers - 12:45 - 1:45pm
- Lunch
- 2:00 - 3:00pm
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Self-Select Groups I:
• Self-Determination as Indigenous Anglicans and Ecojustice with
Archdeacon Rosalyn Kantlaht’ant Elm
• Liturgy as Mission and Mission as Liturgy with the Rev. Dr. Luiz Carlos Teixeira Coelho
• Shattering the Ceiling of Power: Women’s Leadership and Ministry with Dr. Esther Mombo and the Rev. Godfrey Owino Adera
• Reimagining Mission: A Postcolonial Approach for the Anglican Communion with the Rev. Dr. Jesse Zink - 3:00 - 3:15pm
- Break
- 3:15 - 4:15pm
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Self-Select Groups II:
• Exploring Human Sexuality in Postcolonial African Churches with the Rt. Rev. Victor Atta-Baffoe '92
• Christian Unity and Witness in Global Perspective: Ecumenical and
Interreligious Dialogue Across Cultures and Continents with the Rev. Canon Salmoon Bashir
• Voicing Postcolonial Anglican Theology with the Rev. Dr. Robert S. Heaney
• Reimagining Anglican Communion Structures with the Rev. Dr. A. Katherine Grieb - 4:15 - 5:00pm
- Concluding Plenary Session
- 5:00 - 5:15pm
- Break
- 5:15pm - 6:00pm
- Evening Prayer *
Bulletin - 6:00pm
- Dinner
This public event was preceded by a Pre-Conference for Emerging Contextual Theologians in the Anglican Communion.
Conveners
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Dr. Kwok Pui Lan
Dr. Kwok Pui Lan is an internationally recognized theologian in postcolonial theology and Asian and Asian American feminist theology, currently serving as EDS' Distinguished Scholar.
Dr. Kwok has shaped a generation of theological scholarship and formed countless students. Most recently, she was Dean’s Professor of Systematic Theology at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, and a past president of the American Academy of Religion. Before that, she was William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at EDS, where she taught for twenty-five years.
She has authored and edited numerous books on Asian and Asian American feminist theology, biblical interpretation, and postcolonial criticism. She is the author of The Anglican Tradition from a Postcolonial Perspective and editor of Transpacific Political Theology. She received the Lanfranc Award for Education and Scholarship from the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2021.
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The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas, PhD
The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas served as the 15th Bishop Diocesan of The Episcopal Church in Connecticut from 2010 to 2022. He was the Angus Dun Professor of Mission and World Christianity at the Episcopal Divinity School from 1989 to 2010.
He worked as a Volunteer for Mission in the Episcopal Church of Haiti from 1983 to 1984. He has been a member of the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church and Chair of the Standing Commission on World Mission. He was the founder of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation and co-founded Bishops United Against Gun Violence. He is the Vice Chair of the Board of the Episcopal Church Coalition for Racial Equity and Justice.
In the Anglican Communion, Bishop Douglas served on the Anglican Consultative Council, Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion, Design Group for the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops, and Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Mission and Evangelism.
A sought-after speaker nationally and internationally, he is the author and editor of four books and numerous academic and popular articles on the topics of mission, the missional Church, contemporary Anglicanism, and world Christianity.
EDS acknowledges the ongoing hegemony of English language as the dominant form of communication in the Anglican Communion. This conference will be using English and its organizers will engage the question of language and the politics therein during the course of the conference.