New Director announced for The Anglican Alliance: Development, Relief and Advocacy
Tuesday 14th December 2010
The former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the UK's Department of International Development, Sally Keeble has been appointed as the Director of a new cross-Communion Alliance set up to connect and strengthen the development, relief and advocacy activities of the Anglican Communion.Ms Keeble, who has degrees in Theology and Sociology from the University of Oxford, UK and the University of South Africa respectively, will oversee the work of the Alliance (full title The Anglican Alliance: Development, Relief, Advocacy). The Alliance is made up of churches and agencies collaborating and sharing knowledge and skills to add value to the range of development, relief and advocacy activities already undertaken by Anglicans around the world.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has welcomed the key contribution that Ms Keeble will play in the development of this new initiative: "I am delighted at Sally's appointment. She will bring a well-tried level of skill and profound commitment to the role, and I believe she is ideally suit to the task of drawing together the diverse hopes and enterprises of Anglicans around the world in our work of holistic mission."
Based in the Anglican Communion Office in London, one of her main objectives will be to deliver a learning strategy for global skills and knowledge transfer and for fostering greater Anglican and ecumenical collaboration. She has grassroots experience in establishing charitable organisations and networks and in local government, and has experience in communications and public affairs.
Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Canon Kenneth Kearon said he is excited at the appointment: "We have been through a long and exhaustive search process with candidates from every corner of the Communion. Sally emerged as someone with exceptional gifts to see this concept into reality. I am delighted with her appointment and look forward to welcoming her as a colleague."
Ms Keeble has had a passion for relief, development and advocacy work for many years, particularly in the areas of child and maternal health, child poverty and debt relief. She founded an Africa-UK non-governmental organisation to support orphans and vulnerable children and has been a long time supporter of charities. She is married with two teenage children.
A member of the Anglican Church she said she is particularly excited by taking up this role because of her commitment to the role of faith communities in addressing issues of poverty and injustice.
"It's a huge privilege to be appointed to this position. The Alliance represents a different approach to development, in the context of holistic mission. It's based on a model of genuine partnership between people in the Anglican churches and agencies, who bring different strengths and skills to the challenge of beating world poverty," Ms Keeble said.
The Alliance was developed in response to the recommendation made by Bishops from around the Anglican Communion at the 2008 Lambeth Conference that a specific mechanism was needed to help strengthen, co-ordinate and publicise the ongoing international development work of the Anglican Communion. This vision was affirmed by the meetings of the Primates and of the Anglican Consultation Council in 2009.