At the March 12 Mission Thursday, Dean Walter Brownridge will speak from his new ministry as dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Nicosia, Cyprus, and canon to the ordinary in the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf.
Walter will share his sense of call to a complex ministry in a complex region, which includes racial and national diversity at the cathedral and complex relations between Anglican and Orthodox Christianity and between Christians and Muslims. He has noted that Cyprus is a unique intersection between Europe and Africa and between Europe and the Middle East.
The webinar will occur on Zoom at 2pm Eastern on March 12. Register here on Zoom.
On Jan. 13, Bishop Sean Semple of the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf announced the appointment of GEMN Board member the Rev. Canon Walter Brownridge as dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, Nicosia, and canon to the ordinary. The appointment followed Walter’s locum service at the cathedral last summer.
“We are delighted to have a GEMN Board member serving in mission abroad,” said GEMN president Paul Rajan, “and we know that Walter’s vast experience will enhance the ministry of the church in Cyprus and the Persian Gulf nations.” In a precedent from the 2010s, Ted Gaiser served as GEMN president while serving as an Episcopal Volunteer in Mission in Colombia, where he also organized the 2013 Missio conference in Bogota.
Walter took up residence in Nicosia in late January. His wife Tina is completing the academic year as a teacher in Burlington, Vermont, and will join Walter in Cyprus in June. The Brownridges have two grown sons.
Walter’s ministry is being supported jointly by the diocese and by the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. In addition to Cyprus, the diocese includes congregations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, United Emirates, and Yemen.
Walter and his wife Tina served as appointed missionaries of the Episcopal Church in South Africa, 2003-06, from 2003 to 2006. Ministering out of St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, he became friends with Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu during the early years of Black majority rule and the struggle to overcome the racism and colonialism of apartheid.
Walter served recently on General Convention’s Standing Commission on World Mission. As canon for cultural transformation in the Diocese of Vermont, 2021-2023, Walter was responsible for inspiring, forming and gathering the people of the diocese as they sought God’s vision for Beloved Community, particularly in the areas of racial reconciliation, creation care and stewardship. He then served as interim rector of Christ Church in Montpelier.
He has organized Civil Rights Pilgrimages to Atlanta, Montgomery and Selma. Walter was a co-editor and contributor to the August 2022 tribute volume of the Anglican Theological Review in honor of Archbishop Tutu. He was also a contributor to the award-winning anthology, Preaching Black Lives (Matter), published in 2020.
Walter previously served as priest associate at Christ Church, Grosse Pointe, Michigan. A graduate of General Theological Seminary in 2000 and ordained a priest in the Diocese of Ohio in 2001, he served congregations in Ohio, Delaware and New York City. For five years he was dean of St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Honolulu, Hawaii, and was associate dean at the School of Theology at the University in the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.
Walter holds a B.A. from John Carroll University, M.A. from the University of San Diego and J.D. from Georgetown. Prior to ordination, Walter was a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps and practiced law for ten years as a federal prosecutor. He and Tina have two adult sons.