The Board of Directors of the Living Church Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of the Rev. Matthew S.C. Olver, Ph.D., as the new publisher & executive director of the foundation. Fr. Olver will take up his duties on September 1.
Rooted in the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion, the Living Church Foundation seeks to champion the catholic and evangelical faith of the one Church and to hasten the visible unity of all Christians. The Living Church magazine, a principal work of the foundation, has been published since 1878, providing news, reviews, and opinion in service of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. The foundation’s ministries also include the educational and publishing work of the Living Church Institute, The Living Church podcast, and the Covenant weblog.
Fr. Olver’s election by the board was the culmination of a process led by a search committee composed of members of the board and foundation. The committee invited applications and then interviewed a number of candidates before determining a list of finalists. The election by the board took place in June.
Fr. Olver is associate professor of liturgics and pastoral theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary, a seminary of the Episcopal Church, and a valued partner of the Living Church Foundation. He holds a Ph.D. in theology from Marquette University and a master of divinity from Duke University Divinity School. He earned the B.A. degree in English from Wheaton College.
Like the eighth editor of The Living Church, H. Boone Porter, Fr. Olver is a liturgical scholar who takes up this post after having served as a professor at Nashotah House for nearly a decade. He has published widely in early Latin liturgy and the development of the Book of Common Prayer. Fr. Olver has served as a member of the Executive Council and as ecumenical officer of the Diocese of Dallas, two-time deputy to General Convention from Dallas, a member of the Episcopal Church’s Task Force on Liturgical and Prayer Book Revision, and a past member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation in the USA (ARC-USA). He is a member of the Living Church Foundation.
As publisher/executive director, Fr. Olver will be charged with leading the foundation and The Living Church’s staff to fulfillment of the goals of the strategic plan adopted in 2020. Those goals include: expand global reach as a publisher and as a movement; expand teaching resources; strengthen parish ministry; sustain a collaborative team; and grow financial resources.
The foundation began an endowment fund in 2016. The search for a new publisher/executive director began with the resignation of Dr. Christopher Wells, the holder of the position since 2009, in October 2022, in order to take up new duties as the director for unity, faith, and order at the Anglican Communion Office.
During the transition, the senior editor of The Living Church, Fr. Mark Michael, has served as interim executive director. The foundation wishes to extend its sincere thanks to Fr. Michael for his excellent work during this interim period.
