The Revd Dr. Joan Butler Ford has been appointed Director of Telecommunications for the Anglican Communion Office. The post will involve enhancement of global communication via computer and other electronic means. A great deal of interest in communication via email and the Internet amongst provinces and dioceses in the Communion has already been evidenced. Dr. Ford will co-ordinate efforts to pull together these different strands of communication on a full time basis from the London office.
Born in Ohio, USA, Dr. Ford lived for all of her adult life in the San Francisco Bay Area. After two years at Smith College, Dr. Ford was married and moved to California. After raising four children, she went to Stanford University to finish her undergraduate education. She then went on to complete a Ph.D in Sociology, also at Stanford. In the course of this work, she got involved with computers and computer systems. While completing her degree, she worked for the Institute for the Future, a think tank in Menlo Park, California. Much of her work there had to do with the future of computer teleconferencing.
After a stint of teaching at Stanford University Dr. Ford and a partner started a company to do market research for high tech companies. The company ultimately produced a newsletter for the technology and business community on the growth and direction of Artificial Intelligence, a branch of computer science which generated a great deal of interest in the nineteen eighties. The company subsequently merged with another technology newsletter company. At this time, Dr. Ford acted upon a long held call to the priesthood, went to the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and became ordained in 1989. After working as an assistant and an interim pastor, Dr. Ford became rector of St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church, San Francisco. She is a trustee for the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and heads the Technology Committee of the Board of Trustees. This committee was instrumental in seeing that the seminary is connected internally by computer network, as well as ensuring that the school get on-line and develop a web page.
The position of Director of Telecommunications for the Anglican Communion is newly created and will evolve as technology and demand dictate. Dr. Ford is eager to hear from anyone interested in the area of telecommunications in general and the potential for telecommunications in the Anglican Communion in particular.
The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, the Revd Canon John L. Peterson, called Dr. Ford's arrival today as "timely and important". Canon James Rosenthal, Communications Director, recalled the fact when he arrived as a member of the London staff that the attempts at telecommunications were met with "disdain and suspicion". Today, he said it is "essential and the way forward".
Canon Rosenthal also praised the Trinity Church Wall Street Grants Program for all they continue to do around the Communion for telecommunications in general. He said he hoped this involvement will "move us ahead into the next millennium". Dr. Ford is available on email at , and through the Anglican Communion Office. She said, "I am very excited about the possibilities that lie ahead, especially as we prepare for the Lambeth Conference in 1998, and for the twenty-first century".