Welcome Anew Gwen McAllister
On August 1st, the Centre for Christian Studies warmly welcomed Gwen McAllister to the role of Development Coordinator for 2024-25.
With Lori Stewart’s retirement and our Strategic Planning process underway, Central Council decided to offer this 12-month interim position at half-time, to maintain and further cultivate relationships with donors, supporters, and the wider CCS community. The Strategic Plan will determine whether or in what ways the position continues past this interim period. A hiring team made up of volunteers and staff prayerfully considered applications and interviews, and recommended Gwen for this position, with her extensive previous experience of CCS and other non-profit organizations. Her ability to articulate the unique strengths of CCS’ educational model and enthusiastically share stories of its impact – including on her own life – are exceptional and will serve this role well. We welcome her as one of the staff team, particularly working closely with CCS Office Administrator Cheryl Thiessen and with Marcie Gibson as Interim Principal.
Many readers may have met Gwen in other CCS roles, as a student, volunteer committee member, learning facilitator, contact learning circle or LoP/LDM facilitator, or on Central Council. If you haven’t yet, we encourage you to reach out and get to know her! I’m sure you will be hearing from her soon.
We’ve asked Gwen, in her own words, to share a little bit about herself, how she has come to this role, and her hopes moving forward.
Greetings from the Interim Development Coordinator, Gwen McAllister. I’m a 2014 grad and occasional contract staff who lives with my teenage child in the West End of Winnipeg, walking-distance from CCS’ offices. As a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada, I am part of the volunteer-run St. Matthew’s Anglican Church in Winnipeg’s WestEnd Commons.
CCS’ program was primary to my training for ministry, because I knew it taught the skills I saw missing from good-hearted but fractured faith and activist groups: skills needed for collaborative leadership, group dynamics, reconciliation, and change. Along with those, I experienced in the Learning Circles a glimpse of the kingdom of God which has continued to light my journey.
I’m excited to be stepping into this role that assists you and all of us in the broader CCS community to collectively spin straw into gold – to turn money, which is involved in so much harm in our society, into the gold of learning, community, and transformative leadership. I will be calling and writing, and doing some in-person visiting where I can. While an important part of my role is to encourage you to continue funding the learning and preparation of world-changing students, what I want is for each of you, for us together, to feel connected to and enlivened by CCS’ work and by what our students do. I trust it is as life-giving for you as it is for me.
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