One of the striking realities of the late 20th-century experience of being a Christian in the Anglican tradition is the growing awareness of the rich diversity of our world-wide fellowship. For bishops, their spouses and a few others, this reality becomes intensely personal during the every-10-years gathering of Anglican bishops at the Lambeth Conference.

Building on this experience is a regular gathering of the primates (Archbishops and Presiding Bishops) of the 36 provinces of the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Consultative Council broadens this experience to include clergy and laity, as the Communion tries to work together creatively in addressing the many challenges of a fast-changing world. And many of us are benefiting from a great variety of companion relationships, often between first- and third-world dioceses, within which mutual prayer, visits and, where possible, the sharing of resources and people, has done much to broaden our vision of what it means to be an Anglican Christian.

A part of this development of a world-wide Anglican consciousness is the Center for Anglican Communion Studies (CEFACS), located in Selly Oak, Birmingham, England. CEFACS is now in its fifth year of operation. It attracts around two dozen laity and clergy each year for stays of from a month to an academic year. Some 70 persons from 15 provinces have attended the program since its beginning in the fall of 1992. The center has the enthusiastic support of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. George Carey, and the Anglican Consultative Council.

The center is the successor to St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, which functioned from 1952 until its closure in 1967. The loss of St. Augustine's was deeply felt across the Communion, and yet resources for its revival did not materialize. Happily, two existing missionary training colleges, both located in Selly Oak, a suburb of Birmingham, offered jointly to be host to its successor. Crowther Hall is sponsored by the Church Mission Society, and the College of the Ascension is sponsored by the other major English missionary society, the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. More recently, the College of the Ascension became a joint venture between the USPG and the Methodist Church. It is now known as the United College of the Ascension.

I had the privilege of being a Visiting Fellow at Ascension in the academic year 1991-92, when the plans for CEFACS were being developed, and I sat in on the planning sessions. Upon our return to the U.S., THE LIVING CHURCH published my article about the plans for the center in which I particularly commended it for the orientation of newly elected bishops, something that three successive Lambeth Conferences have strongly commended. It is of interest that those responsible for that orientation in the Church of England are now beginning to use the resources of the center and its two college hosts to meet that particular need.

Both colleges already supply an international community of British men and women training for mission posts along with an even larger number of church leaders, ordained and lay, from around the world. Participants in CEFACS reside in one or the other of the two colleges, becoming a part of their daily life.

Besides the decision to use these existing institutions, staffs and resources, there are two additional advantages of the location at Selly Oak. The first is that the two colleges are part of a larger ecumenical cluster of training and educational institutions known as Selly Oak Colleges, which cooperate in the use of common facilities, library, administrative offices and other resources. So the experience of residence in one of the colleges is ecumenical, while the culture and worship of the two Anglican colleges is distinctly Anglican in all of its diversity.

Second, Birmingham has lively communities of three major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. There is significant history of warm inter-faith dialogue between these communities and the Selly Oak Colleges. In a world where inter-faith dialogue, mutual cooperation and understanding are becoming ever more important, this aspect of the location of CEFACS is noteworthy.

On a recent visit to the two colleges, I had conversations with the two principals, Andrew Wingate of the United College of the Ascension, and Colin Chapman of Crowther Hall. They in turn arranged for me to spend time with Bishop Tony Dumper, the retired Suffragan Bishop of Dudley in the Diocese of Worcester, who oversees the program, and three of the current participants, from Cameroon, South Africa and South India. A few words about each of them will give you an idea of the diversity of the experience a participant in CEFACS gains from sharing in the program.

Minna Lyttle-Kpartor is a Jamaican by birth, married to a Liberian priest who is currently vicar general of a mission by the Liberian Church in Cameroon. In addition to the foundation courses offered to all who enroll in CEFACS, she is taking further work in church management in order to be of greater help to her husband when she returns to Cameroon. She shyly admitted to having been elected by residents of Ascension College as president of the Common Room (the English equivalent of "student body president"). She is a warm and engaging lady, a fervent Christian whose leadership ability has already been recognized by her colleagues.

James Keetile is a priest of the Church of Southern Africa and currently is a curate in a railway junction community of De aar in the Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman. He had a previous study leave in England in 1993, at Mirfield, a monastic community and clergy training center. He mentioned quite matter of factly that the usual attendance at the principal Sunday Eucharist in his parish is 1,000! The parish is active in youth work, and has a community preschool which serves 80 children of working mothers. He is a talented young priest and spoke with both passion and hope about the recent transformation in the society of South Africa.

J. Adula Aruldoss, a participant in the center's program, is also the current visiting fellow at the United College of the Ascension. A layman, he teaches in the humanities at the American College in Madurai, South India. His background is Dalit (the "untouchable" caste), and he speaks with the conviction of experience which goes back two generations, of the egalitarian and liberating thrust of the Christian gospel in a society which still labors under the dehumanizing influence of the caste system.

These people are typical of the sort of Christians (many at whom are Anglican) one will meet and get to know at Selly Oak. For Americans, the vitality and enthusiasm of these sisters and brothers in the faith cannot but help expand our awareness of the strength and diversity of the Christian fellowship around the world.

The program at CEFACS has three components:

1. A foundation course in Anglican Communion studies covering subjects like doctrine, spirituality, Anglican history, ecumenism, mission, inculturation and relations with world faiths. The weekly lectures are offered by some of the most able scholars in the country.

2. One specialist area of study, according to the interests and needs of the individual, in the Department of Theology at the nearby University of Birmingham or in one of the departments or centers of Selly Oak Colleges.

3. A placement in an English parish in one of the four neighboring dioceses or with a secular or religious organization that can offer the experience and learning the participant seeks.

According to the two principals and Bishop Dumper, an informal network is beginning to develop among those who have participated in CEFACS, and there are also plans for publications, the need for which has been identified out of the trans-cultural and international character of the CEFACS experience over the last five years.

The fees, which cover accommodation, tuition, local travel and basic running costs of the center, are about $7,000 for the academic year. These fees are, of course, pro-rated for shorter stays. For courses in Selly Oak Colleges and in the University of Birmingham, tuition fees are extra. Some scholarships are available.

There is not a more engaging way for an Episcopalian to enter into the richness and diversity of Anglicanism around the world. Further information about CEFACS can be obtained by writing to the principal of either of the host colleges:

The Rev. Andrew Wingate, principal

United College of the Ascension

Weoley Park Road

Selly Oak

Birmingham B29 6RD

Tel: 0121 472 1667

The Rev. Colin Chapman, principal

Crowther Hall

Weoley Park Road

Selly Oak

Birmingham B29 6QT

Tel: 0121 472 4228(9)

The Rt. Rev. George C. Harris is the Bishop of Alaska, retired. He lives in Aberdeen, S.D.