Paul David Loup Avis (; born 1947) is an English Anglican priest, theologian, and ecumenist. He was General Secretary of the Church of England's Council for Christian Unity from 1998 to 2011, theological consultant to the Anglican Communion Office, London, from 2011 to 2012, and Canon Theologian of Exeter Cathedral from 2008 to 2013. He was honorary professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University 2017-2021 and Honorary Professor in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh 2022-. At the University of Exeter he was visiting professor of theology from 2009 to 2017 and is currently honorary research fellow. He is Director of the Centre for the Study of the Christian Church which organises occasional conferences and is linked to the journal Ecclesiology, published by Brill, of which he is Editor-in-Chief. He is the editor of the series Anglican-Episcopal Theology and History, also published by Brill. Avis was also a chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II, 2008–2017.
Biography
Avis was born on 21 July 1947 in Walthamstow. He studied theology at the University of London, where he obtained his Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1970 and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1976 with a thesis on the theology of Bishop Charles Gore, which was later published as Gore: Construction and Conflict (1988). On 11 July 1970, he married Susan Janet Haywood; they have three sons and two grandchildren.
After serving briefly as a presbyter in the Free Church of England, he was ordained deacon (1975) and priest (1976) in the Church of England's Diocese of Exeter, Avis served his title as assistant curate in the large team ministry of the South Molton Group of Parishes (1975–80), after which he became the vicar of the semi-rural, multi-parish benefice of Stoke Canon, Poltimore with Huxham, and Rewe with Netherexe, for eighteen years (1980–98). Avis served the wider diocese as Cathedral Prebendary (1993) and Sub-Dean (1997), and in 2008 he became the cathedral's and diocese’s first Canon Theologian. He is also an honorary Assistant Priest in the Axminster Group of Parishes in which he lives (in East Devon, UK).
Since his first years as a parish priest, Avis has become a prolific writer of theological books and articles, especially related to the identity and ecclesiology of Anglicanism in historical and ecumenical perspective. In 2004 he founded the international journal Ecclesiology, of which he is Editor in Chief.
Avis has been affiliated to the University of Exeter since the early 1980s. He became an honorary Research Fellow of the Department of Theology in 1995 and honorary Professor of Theology in 2009. He set up the centre for the Study of the Christian Church, which organises ecumenical consultations and, until 2015, held the annual Richard Hooker Lectures at the Cathedral and at the University of St Mark and St John, Plymouth. The journal Ecclesiology is a project of the centre and is also published in association with the Ecclesiological Investigations Research Network.
In 1998 Avis was appointed Mary Tanner's successor in the key ecumenical position of General Secretary of the Council for Christian Unity, the Church of England's ecumenical study and advisory commission. He had already served on the Faith and Order Advisory Group (1990–98) and the Doctrine Commission (1989–95) of the Church of England, and has subsequently been a member of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations (2000–08). He now serves on the successor body, the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission for Unity Faith and Order. He has also served on a couple of international ecumenical dialogues on behalf of the Anglican Communion.
The Queen appointed Avis as a member of the Royal College of Chaplains in 2008.
Theology
"Among contemporary theological voices, that of Paul Avis is always wide-ranging, constructive and sane, combining scholarship with a nuanced feel for tradition." This appraisal by the Anglican theologian and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams identifies Avis as a leading contemporary Anglican theologian. Leaving aside his articles, Avis's books can be classified in three areas of theology: systematic, ecclesiological and practical-theological. In each of these areas, Avis makes a distinctive and constructive contribution to some highly disputed themes in contemporary theology and especially in worldwide Anglicanism.