US Episcopalian priest Rev Richard Burnett has visited Aotearoa New Zealand as a first stop at the start of his term as General Secretary of the Network of Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion.

Visiting the Diocese of Dunedin’s university residential hall, Selwyn College this Matariki, Rev Richard Burnett was enthusiastic about going worldwide with his work to build bridges between churches and tertiary institutions, which he has done in many ways over his four decades in parish ministry.

“I want our Anglican academic institutions to remember the ideal of Colleges as communities of scholars seeking truth.” 

“When our students live in that way, they can make connections with church and community to respond to that truth they find, and colleges become places for empowerment and advocacy.”

Rev Richard Burnett was in the south Pacific this July to attend the 11th Triennial Conference of Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion (CUAC) in Melbourne, Australia, alongside 60 representatives of Anglican tertiary institutions from: Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Barbados, Canada, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Liberia, the Philippines, South Sudan, the UK and the USA.

Rev Dr Eseta Mateiviti-Tulavu attended this July’s Melbourne CUAC meeting representing the College of St John the Evangelist in Meadowbank. She thinks there are real benefits to gathering Anglican tertiary institutions together, to learn from one another, and get to know the people and programmes involved in colleges around the Communion. 

Eseta also believes our Pacific colleges have a key role to play in what CUAC turns its attention to,

“We can contribute our emphasis on the issue of climate change and how it has affected the islands of the Pacific, and work on exchange programmes for students and staff to strengthen learning and networking across the Communion.” 

Out of Richard Burnett’s experience in mobilising church-community collaborations through centre city parishes in Columbus, Ohio; St James and White Plains New York and in Connecticut, he wants to see Anglican academic communities stand up and make a difference.

“We are resurrection people, we are not Good Friday people – so, while we need to be aware of the limits we face, in a humble, prayerful way, we need to move to what we can do about it.” 

He is particularly keen to see colleges develop programmes in service learning and strategic cooperation between faculty and leaders that strengthens Anglican institutions.

“My questions for Anglican Colleges and Universities are,

"How can we point to a more vital resurrection? How can our Anglican communities of scholars share resurrection in places of hurt and lovelessness? 

Richard Burnett hopes to be back in Aotearoa New Zealand in July next year, when chaplains, board members and heads of Anglican universities and colleges will gather for the 2024 CUAC Oceania regional conference.

Next year’s Oceania CUAC meeting will be hosted by Selwyn College - Te Maru Pūmanawa in Dunedin, and organising chaplain Rev Canon Michael Wallace is keen to encourage as many colleges and universities from across the Pacific to get on board.

“CUAC’s Oceania chapter is in its early stages of formation, with only a few Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand colleges taking part so far. Holding the conference here in Dunedin gives colleges in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia the chance to benefit from membership in the international community of Anglican colleges and to contribute to how the Oceania chapter of CUAC takes shape.”

Michael Wallace was also part of the the global group of tertiary chaplains that planned the chaplain’s preconference for the CUAC meeting in Melbourne this July.

“In a world where chaplaincy is so important, and so often misunderstood, CUAC provides a great opportunity for chaplains as well as board members and heads of Anglican tertiary institutions to share our struggles and our successes.” he said. 

Michael reports it was fascinating to learn from colleagues in diverse Anglican tertiary institutions.

“We heard from the chaplain of an Anglican College founded in a US prison, from historic Anglican colleges across the Church of South India, about indigenous Australian education ministries and about the complex challenges for the church as it founded an Anglican university in South Sudan.” 

Rev Richard Burnett also spoke of the range of institutions that make up CUAC, which grew out of an initial network of US Episcopal colleges and universities.

He highlighted Sewanee, the University of the South as an historic institution founded by a group of Episcopal dioceses whose traditions of robed students and gothic edifices gives it an Oxbridge atmosphere, recreated on the Cumberland Plateau in southern Tennessee. 

“Sewanee is one of our Communion’s flagship institutions, but at the same time it has its own history of racial injustice – and has had a powerful reckoning with that.”

“It also took part in the rebuilding of the new south after the Civil War, so it’s a place of privilege, but can prove itself as a place of social justice.”

Anglican tertiary institutions in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia include theological colleges: Te Rau College Gisborne, St John the Evangelist Theological College Auckland, St John the Baptist Theological College Suva and Bishopdale College Nelson; as well as Anglican residential university halls: College House and Arcady Hall Christchurch, and Selwyn College Te Maru Pūmanawa, Dunedin.

As the Oceania regional chapter of CUAC expands, Richard Burnett and the CUAC team hope to encourage more colleges and universities to join from across the Church of Melanesia and the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea.

More information can be found on the page of the Network of Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion.