Double honour for co-ordinator of CofE's unity work

Prebendary Dr Paul Avis, General Secretary of the Council for Christian Unity, has been appointed as a chaplain to the Queen. The news comes on the same day that the Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Rev Michael Langrish, has announced that Dr Avis has been appointed the first Canon Theologian of Exeter.

The honorary appointment will add Dr Avis to the 35 members of the College of Chaplains, which forms part of the Queen's Ecclesiastical Household. Each of the chaplains preach once a year in the Chapel Royal, in St James' Palace, London, and also join a rota of chaplains who are available to Her Majesty at any time.

In his new appointment in the Diocese of Exeter, Dr Avis will serve as a theological resource, bringing his gifts of scholarship and teaching to the ministry of Exeter Cathedral and the Diocese as a whole. He will be installed in Exeter Cathedral at Evensong on 6 May 2008.

Dr Avis' main role as General Secretary of the Church of England's Council for Christian Unity involves co-ordinating and promoting work that builds stronger unity across the wider Christian Church through ecumenical conversations, local unity initiatives, theological research and reflection.

He is also a research fellow in the Department of Theology at the University of Exeter, a Senior Inspector of Colleges and Courses for the House of Bishops, Director of the Centre for the Study of the Christian Church, and editor of the journal Ecclesiology. Dr Avis is the author of many books, the most recent being The Identity of Anglicanism: Essentials of Anglican Ecclesiology.