17 Facts About Paul Avis

Paul David Loup Avis is an English Anglican priest, theologian, and ecumenist.

Paul Avis was General Secretary of the Church of England's Council for Christian Unity from 1998 to 2011, theological consultant to the Anglican Communion Office, London, from 2011 to 2012, and Canon Theologian of Exeter Cathedral from 2008 to 2013.

Paul Avis is the editor of the series Anglican-Episcopal Theology and History, published by Brill.

Paul Avis studied theology at the University of London, where he obtained his Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1970 and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1976 with a thesis on the theology of Bishop Charles Gore, which was later published as Gore: Construction and Conflict.

Paul Avis served the wider diocese as Cathedral Prebendary and Sub-Dean, and in 2008 he became the cathedral's and diocese's first Canon Theologian.

Paul Avis is an honorary Assistant Priest in the Axminster Group of Parishes in which he lives.

Paul Avis has been affiliated to the University of Exeter since the early 1980s.

Paul Avis became an honorary Research Fellow of the Department of Theology in 1995 and honorary Professor of Theology in 2009.

Paul Avis set up the centre for the Study of the Christian Church, which organises ecumenical consultations and, until 2015, held the annual Richard Hooker Lectures at the Cathedral and at the University of St Mark and St John, Plymouth.

In 1998 Paul Avis was appointed Mary Tanner's successor in the key ecumenical position of General Secretary of the Council for Christian Unity, the Church of England's ecumenical study and advisory commission.

Paul Avis had already served on the Faith and Order Advisory Group and the Doctrine Commission of the Church of England, and has subsequently been a member of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations and the successor body, the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission for Unity Faith and Order.

Paul Avis has served on a couple of international ecumenical dialogues on behalf of the Anglican Communion.

Paul Avis is currently at work on a multi-volume personal project under the general title Theological Foundations of the Christian Church, the first volume being Jesus and the Church, 2021.

Where theology, ecclesiology and ecclesial practice meet, Paul Avis's work becomes practical-theological.

Paul Avis's book Becoming a Bishop: Theological Handbook of Episcopal Ministry, which was written at the request of the Secretary-General of the Anglican Communion, bridges practical theology and the Anglican tradition.

Paul Avis deduces this position from the theological and practical history of the Church of England, in which other churches were not denied their ecclesiality, but episcopacy was always seen as necessary for full visible unity.

Paul Avis's theology is deeply sacramental without becoming partisan or restrictive.