The Governors of the Anglican Centre in Rome are very pleased to announce the appointment of the Right Reverend Michael Burrows, Bishop of Cashel, Ferns and Ossory in the Church of Ireland, as the chair of the Board of Governors from 1 January 2019.
Bishop Burrows will succeed the Right Reverend Stephen Platten, former Bishop of Wakefield, who has served the Anglican Centre in Rome for three decades, the last fifteen years as chair.
Bishop Platten said, “It was with great delight that we have received the agreement of Bishop Burrows to become the new chair of the Anglican Centre. The governors have every confidence that he will lead the Centre, which represents all parts of the Anglican Communion, in new, imaginative, effective, and faithful ways. We have every confidence in the future of the ACR under his leadership, and we wish him well, with all our prayerful support.”
Bishop Burrows said, “I’m very honoured to have been invited to become the Chair of the governors of the ACR. For many years I have admired its vital and fruitful work, and I have been personally enriched through participation in courses and events there. The Centre is renowned as a place of learning, hospitality and presence—a veritable ‘embassy’ for Anglicanism in the heart of Rome. It will be a privilege to make a contribution to its governance, and to follow in the footsteps of Bishop Stephen Platten whose total commitment has ensured the wellbeing and high profile of the ACR over very many years.”
The Anglican Centre in Rome is the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s personal representative to the Holy See, and thus works closely with the instruments of unity of the Anglican Communion, the Roman Catholic Church, and other ecumenically minded bodies, for reconciliation, peace-making, and greater, visible, unity among the Christian churches and all people. The current representative is Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi, former primate of Burundi. The Centre also works as a place of pilgrimage, education, and encounter for all Anglicans and Episcopalians from around the world: it is the Anglican Communion’s “home in Rome.”