Photo above – from left to right: The Anglican Alliance’s new anti-modern slavery advocate Amy Bishop, Executive Director Rachel Carnegie, and new Senior Advisor Canon Grace Kaiso
The former General Secretary of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA), Canon Grace Kaiso, has been appointed as Senior Advisor to the Anglican Alliance.
The Alliance helps to connect and equip the missional work of Anglican Churches and agencies around the world in relief, development and advocacy. One of its current priorities is a major campaign against modern slavery. It has also recruited a new advocate to support this work, Amy Bishop, who has been seconded from the Church of England’s Clewer Initiative.
“I am delighted that Canon Grace Kaiso has agreed to join the Anglican Alliance team as our Senior Adviser”, Executive Director Rachel Carnegie said. “I greatly look forward to working with him. Canon Grace brings profound theological insight and practical experience to the role and will help guide the Anglican Alliance in supporting the holistic mission of the churches of the Communion.”
The appointment was also welcomed by Archbishop Albert Chama, Primate of the Church of the Province of Central Africa. Archbishop Albert is Chair of both CAPA and the Anglican Alliance. “Canon Grace Kaiso brings a wealth of experience to the Anglican Alliance”, he said. “He is a great leader in team work, and networking with other Churches in the ecumenical fraternity and the parachurch organisations. . . He is also skilled in peace building ministry. We welcome Canon Grace and wish him God’s blessings in his new role in the Anglican Alliance team.”
Canon Kaiso told ACNS that one of the roles of the Alliance is to “keep constant awareness of the realities around us and how those contradicts the desire of God for his people and his world”, adding: “Here we are, but look at the people who are suffering because of conflict, look at the people who are suffering because of poverty, look at the people who are suffering because of the impact of climate change: look at the hopelessness in the faces of men and women wherever you go.”
The second role, he said, was to find “enabling mechanisms to engage with that reality, as we are called to be light and salt in the world.”
Canon Kaiso will be based in Uganda – where he previously worked as General Secretary for the country’s ecumenical group, the Christian Council of Uganda. He is a recipient of the Rotary International Vocational Award for contributing Peace and Governance in Africa, and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s St Augustine Award for services to the Anglican Communion.
Amy Bishop is being seconded half-time to the Alliance by the Church of England’s Clewer Initiative.
The initiative is named after a community of Anglican nuns which was established in the 19th century to help women out of prostitution. The Clewer Sisters are putting their community’s financial resources behind the campaign against modern slavery.
The Clewer Initiative has developed a range of resources including a much-lauded Safe Car Wash app to detect and report possible slave-gangs operating in the UK; and educational resources to help train school children to spot signs of abuse.
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