The Compass Rose Society has launched a $10 million endowment to support the work of the Anglican Consultative Council and the international ministry of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
“Who will stand in the breach between the needs of the Anglican Communion and the resources to undertake its ministry?” said the Rt. Rev. Andrew Doyle, Bishop of Texas and president of the society. “The Compass Rose Society is looking for partners to join us and meet this need squarely with the financial donations required to undergird the vision of Communion to which I firmly believe God has invited us.”
Membership in the society requires an initial gift of $10,000 and an annual commitment of $2,500 to $3,000. The money supports the society’s goal of providing an annual gift of $400,000 to the Anglican Consultative Council.
“As a former secretary general, I know firsthand how important such an endowment is,” said the Rev. Canon John Peterson of Washington National Cathedral. “This endowment will allow the Anglican Communion to initiate new unbudgeted programs between ACC meetings or respond to humanitarian crises.”
The endowment will be held by a trust fund established as an English charity, with the Anglican Communion Office as sole beneficiary. The Compass Rose Society’s board of directors and its finance committee will oversee the endowment, and the trust will be supervised by five trustees.
More than half of the funds raised by the Compass Rose Society have supported AnglicanCommunion.org, Anglican Communion News Service, the Anglican Francophone Network, Anglican World magazine, the International Anglican Family Network, the International Anglican Women’s Network, and the Network for Interfaith Concerns.
They have also supported the Diocese of Jerusalem’s hospitals in Gaza and Nablus and its Princess Basma Center for Disabled Children; the Diocese of Ghana’s eye clinic in Cape Coast, West Africa; the Diocese of the Highveld’s AIDS relief project; the Diocese of Kaduna’s health clinic in the Kateri bush in Nigeria; and the Dioceses of Rio de Janeiro and the Amazon’s work in Cidade de Deus.
“I greatly appreciate the commitment that the Compass Rose Society has made to the global ministry of my office and the Anglican Communion,” said Archbishop Justin Welby. “The society has supported several of my predecessors’ initiatives, including the Anglican Observer to the United Nations, the Bible in the Life of the Church, and theological textbooks for seminary libraries and, during my tenure, the Continuing Indaba project.”
Adapted from ACNS
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
