National office’s communications director to resign

The Anglican Church of Canada’s director of communications, Meghan Kilty, will be stepping down July 19 from the role she has filled for more than four years.

“Two weeks ago, I accepted, with regret, Meghan Kilty’s resignation from her position as Director of Communications for General Synod,” Archdeacon Michael Thompson, general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada, announced in an email Wednesday, July 3. “Meghan has been in that position since May of 2015, and has made significant contributions across the life of Church House, as well as in her own department.”

Continued Thompson, “Meghan has worked with staff and committee members to improve business processes and to align the department’s work with strategic direction, to prepare the Anglican Journal for a sustainable future, to prepare for this month’s meeting of the General Synod, and to lay the groundwork for a single news channel.”

In an interview with the Anglican Journal, Kilty said there were a number of reasons why it made sense for her to move on now.

“I think that there’s never a good time to leave—and at the same time, I think we’re at a point now where it’s OK for me to hand off to another leader who will step into this role,” she said. “We’ve dealt with a lot of change and work around the Journal, we’ve built up a more strategic capacity across the department, particularly when it comes to digital. We have plans to roll some new web designs and a single news channel come the fall. So there is a lot of really positive momentum.”

Kilty also said that, with the election of a new primate to take place at General Synod this July 10-16, it was a natural time for a change in leadership at the national office.

“It’s a good opportunity for someone to step into this role, and really make his or her own mark,” she said. “At the same time, personally, professionally, I think I’ve realized that to do my job well I would be committing to at least another five years. I want to make it clear, I’m not running from something. I’m looking forward to new opportunity, new context, new environment.”

Kilty will be moving on to serve as the first director of communications and a member of the senior leadership team of Victoria University in the University of Toronto, which includes Victoria College and Emmanuel College, a seminary associated with the United Church of Canada.

Highlights of her time at the Anglican Church of Canada, Kilty said, included helping the church respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action from a strategic communications perspective, supporting the primate and the House of Bishops, and witnessing and supporting the development of a self-determining Indigenous church within the Anglican Church of Canada.

Her team, Kilty said, had accomplished a lot during “a time of change”—including some “really difficult transition” in the life of the Anglican Journal.

In early 2017, a joint working group was struck to discuss the future mandate and print distribution of the Anglican Journal. At the meeting of the Council of General Synod (CoGS) this March, the working group recommended changing the Journal’s editorial mandate. CoGS approved these recommendations, and also passed a motion commending the changes to General Synod for confirmation.

Kilty said she’d enjoyed working with the group. “It has been extremely rewarding, working with that set of volunteers from across the church,” she said. “I’ve learned so much, and I think that legacy and that future that we’re starting to live into is really exciting.”

Before beginning her role at the national office, Kilty was Senior Communications Advisor at the University Health Network, and a content specialist for the vice-provost of students at York University, where, among other things, she co-authored a social media protocol and served as social media advisor for more than 350 staff.

Kilty, who was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, became an Anglican in 2005. The following year, she began work as a communications coordinator at the Toronto parish of St. Paul’s Bloor Street.

While serving as communications director, Kilty also completed a master of communications management program jointly offered by McMaster University and Syracuse University.