Greetings from Bishop Poole

Dear Friends,

In a very short period of time I will have the privilege of meeting with Anglican bishops from around the world to pray, study scripture and reflect on the role of a Bishop in 2008. Please pray for us and for our Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury and his wife Jane, as they welcome visitors from around our International Communion to the Lambeth Conference.

Much is happening. I am pleased to be able to welcome the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States, the International Anglican Women’s Network (Canada), Alice and Ben Cheung from Hong Kong and St. Mary’s, Kerrisdale parish from Vancouver to our Society.

This past April, the Compass Rose Society Board met in Seattle for its semi-annual board meeting. Many thanks go to Board member and host Marshal McReal, who provided us with a wonderful meeting facility and who graciously hosted an event where we had the privilege of sharing the work of the Compass Rose Society with those in the Seattle area. We were blessed at this gathering to have the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori in attendance as well.

This growth theme was a continuing thread in our board meeting. Canon Kenneth Kearon, Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, discussed efforts to establish instruments of unity and global reconciliation. This included work on an Anglican Covenant as a way to establish common ground and the Canon Law Project that explores the similarities in canon law between parts of the Communion. Another project is entitled “The Bible in the Life of the Church”. This is a three-year effort to discern how the Bible functions in the life of the church. Kenneth also highlighted the ongoing emphasis on theological education, which involves getting material to seminaries that do not have textbooks, increasing theological education for women and expanding the translation of textbooks into other languages. He shared the many mission efforts and the ongoing work of the Anglican UN Observer, Hellen Wangusa, in her role to actively promote the Millennium Goals. We were also briefed on the upcoming Lambeth Conference.

We reflected on how the Compass Rose Society has changed and evolved since its inception. We are a maturing organization that needs to engage its membership more actively. Our recent mail and telephone surveys are part of this. We hope to gather both updated contact information as well to learn what the key areas of interest are for our membership. I welcome feedback and ideas from you all. Please feel free to use the new Compass Rose email compassrosesociety@yorkcvalleyanglican.com.

In closing, I wish to thank you all again for your commitment to the Compass Rose Society. I hope you will be able to attend the Annual General Meeting at Canterbury in November. This centuries-old pilgrimage site will be a very special place for meeting with fellow Anglicans from around the world.

Yours in Christ,

The Right Reverend Philip Poole,

President, Compass Rose Society