Christ Our Hope Anglican Church is currently seeking a new Rector for our parish in Olympia Washington.
Send completed application via e-mail to Search Committee Chair, info@cohacolympia.org
The Rt. Rev. Kevin Bond Allen
Bishop and Dean of the College of Bishops Affairs, ACNA
The Rt. Rev. Kevin Bond Allen was born in 1954 and grew up in Silverdale, Washington. After two years at Pacific Lutheran University, he graduated from the University of Washington and completed his graduate studies at the (Roman Catholic) Seattle University.
He served as a Youth Leader for High School and College groups and as Christian Camp Program Staff, which included leading backpack and canoe trips. Kevin served as a Lay Missioner in a Church of England inner-city London parish, reaching out to low-income multi-racial communities. He would serve for a few months as a missioner in Bangladesh with the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
Kevin completed his Masters in Divinity in 1987 while studying at both General Theological Seminary in New York and Ridley Hall in Cambridge, UK, and was ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church in 1988. He served as a priest from 1988-2007 in parishes, including vicar of a Cambodian Refugee Church in Tacoma, Associate Rector in Bellevue, and then rector in Puyallup, WA, as a Rector of a large university parish in Austin, TX, and later Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and Board President of St. Paul’s Academy Bellingham WA.
In 2007, after leaving the Episcopal Church, Kevin was installed as the first full-time vicar of St. Brendan’s Anglican Church Bellingham, a church plant that he helped found. He would later lead the congregation to join the Anglican Church in North America when it was formally established. Kevin helped co-found the Diocese of Cascadia, which unanimously elected him as their Bishop in 2011 during the first diocesan synod. He was consecrated by Archbishop Robert Duncan and 23 other bishops of the ACNA on September 30, 2011. Under his leadership, the Diocese of Cascadia’s geographic diocese began with 7 congregations spread across Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. As of 2020, the diocese has grown to 27 congregations, church plants, and mission start-ups and is currently planting new churches every year. He was appointed to head the companion relationship between the ACNA and the Anglican Province of Myanmar. He and his wife have traveled extensively and participated in teaching and ministry. Kevin was a co-consecrating bishop for Rev. Miguel Uchoa when he was made Bishop in Recife, Brazil (a companion diocese with Cascadia), who later became the first Archbishop of the Anglican Province of Brazil.
Kevin became first interested in ecumenism through a friendship with an Orthodox Church in America (OCA) priest while serving in Puyallup, WA, where he became chair of the local Pastor’s Association. He later founded and chaired the University Pastor’s Association in Austin, TX, and was part of the Western Christian Faculty Forum at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. He was honored to be the first ACNA Bishop invited to attend an OCA All America Council, which was held in 2011 in Bellevue, WA.
Because of this background, Archbishop Robert Duncan appointed Bishop Kevin as chair of the ACNA-Orthodox Church of America Dialogue for the ACNA. He co-led the Moscow meeting of ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach with His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Jerusalem meeting with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III. He also serves on the Native American Ministry Task Force, president of the Board of Share Our Ministries Abroad (SOMA-USA), and sub-Dean of the ACNA Ecumenical Affairs. In 2019 at the June ACNA Provincial Assembly, Archbishop Foley Beach appointed Bishop Allen as Dean of College of Bishops Affairs concurrent with his continued ministry as the diocesan Bishop of Cascadia.
Bishop Kevin has focused on and taught several subjects throughout his career are Celtic Spirituality, Outreach and Social Action, Healing and Lay Ministries, Vestry and Lay leadership, Long Range Planning, Stewardship, and New Member Ministries.
“About Us.” The Anglican Diocese of Cascadia. https://www.cascadiadiocese.org/about-cascadia.
The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach
Archbishop and Primate of The Anglican Church in North America
The Most Reverend Doctor Foley Beach was elected the Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America on June 22, 2014. He is also the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the South, headquartered in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. In June of 2018, he was elected by Archbishops from around the world to Chair the Primates Council of the Global Anglican Future Conference, a renewal movement within the Anglican Communion.
Archbishop Beach is a graduate of Georgia State University, the University of the South, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He began his ministry by serving teenagers through Young Life. Prior to serving as archbishop and bishop, he planted and led Holy Cross Anglican Church in Loganville, Georgia.
The scripture verse that has most guided his ministry is Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” (ESV)
Archbishop Beach can be heard on radio stations in the U.S. and around the world via his teaching ministry, A Word from the Lord, and his One-Minute Message, an evangelism outreach to the unchurched.
“Archbishop Beach.” The Anglican Church in North America, June 16, 2020. https://anglicanchurch.net/archbishop-beach/.
