Our Team

OUR LEADERSHIP, COACHES AND CANONS

Who We Are

Always Forward is the Provincial church planting initiative for the Anglican Church in North America. Our work is a collaborative effort between the Province, Dioceses, and local churches.


Under the overarching direction of our Archbishop and Provincial leadership, our team is a collaboration between our Always Forward staff, our Church Planting coaches and trainers, and all of the diocesan Canons for Church Planting across the ACNA. Networking together we work to mobilize, resource and support our church planters so they can ever more effectively spread the gospel and make disciples of Jesus by planting churches all across North America.

See below to learn a little more about some of the members of our team including our staff and coaches.

Our Canons

Our diocesan Canons for Church Planting are key to our team and how we function as a collaborative network across the ACNA. They provide leadership for all the church planting efforts and strategies in their dioceses and they are one of our central resources. Bringing them together, cultivating relationships and experience sharing and collective strategizing is key to our work and key to seeing church planting flourish across the Province.

Our Coaches

  • Joseph Acanfora

    Joseph is an ordained priest in the Anglican Church of North America. Joe has served as head pastor/rector at churches in New York and Virginia. With a heart for mission and reaching the next generation, Joe has served in missional ministries in New Orleans, Kenya, inter-cities and on college campuses and with local youth groups. While at Church of the Apostles, Joe led the congregation in re-planting in a new neighborhood and eventually developing a new property to be the new home of Apostles. Also in his tenure there, the Church of the Apostles facilitated two new church plants in the region, while Joe served as part of. the Great Commission Committee of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic, the church planting arm of the diocese. Joe and his wife Beth reside in Evergreen Colorado and have been married since 1983 and have three grown sons and one daughter, and two grandchildren. In his spare time you might find Joe flyfishing one in beautiful Colorado or elsewhere. Joe loves teaching and guiding others in his favorite sport.

  • Daniel Adkinson

    Fr. Daniel is the founding rector of St. Thomas Anglican Church in Athens, GA. St. Thomas is a growing, young church in a strategic university town that is home to the University of Georgia. Before moving to Athens, he spent about a decade on staff at Christ Church in Plano, TX. While there he served as the first Executive Director of Anglican 1000 - a church planting initiative of the ACNA. He also served as Vicar responsible for all day to day operations of a large, multi-staff Anglican parish that was actively planting daughter churches in their area and assisting other church plants in different parts of Texas.

  • Dan Alger

    Dan has been a major leader for church planting in the Anglican Church in North America for years. He is a former Provincial Canon for Church Planting and has served for years in leadership with Always Forward. Dan has a long history of almost 20 years in church planting, helping church planters and church plants as a friend, trainer, and coach. He has planted two churches as the Lead Planter in Georgia and North Carolina. Dan graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earned his Masters from Trinity School for Ministry, and his D.Min. from Asbury Theological Seminary. Dan is married to Karen, and they have two young sons. At the moment, Dan is only receiving a limited number of clients.

  • Tuck Bartholomew

    As the Canon for Church Planting for the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic, Tuck leads the Great Commission Committee, as well as training church planters, coaching pastors, performing assessments for prospective planters, and aids in developing strategic plans for local congregations in the diocese.

  • Ryan Brotherton

    The Rev. Canon Ryan Brotherton has been involved in church planting and working with other church planters from different denominations for the past fifteen years. He planted Holy Trinity Edmonds in 2014 and continues to lead this growing parish. As Canon of Church Planting in the Diocese of Cascadia, Anglican Church in North America, he oversees church planters and helps to direct the strategy and implementation of new churches in the Diocese. His focus of study has been in leadership, theology and society and he is especially concerned with helping leaders establishing healthy cultures as the foundation for starting new churches that will continue to flourish for generations to come.

  • Tony Melton

    Fr. Tony serves as priest and planting rector at Christ the King Anglican Church. He was ordained a priest in 2015 after graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary with his ThM in 2012 and Cranmer Theological House with his ThM in 2013. Before arriving in Georgia in 2019, he spent 5 years as assisting priest at The Chapel of the Cross and Headmaster of The Saint Timothy School in Dallas, TX. He and his wife, Vandi, have five children. Fr. Tony enjoys playing sports, especially golf, and talking theology over coffee/beer.

  • Dean Moyer

    Dean serves as the Executive Director of Parish Life at the Church of the Resurrection in Flower Mound, TX. Additionally, he is an Executive Coach serving the local church, drawing on 40 years of ministry experience as a worship pastor, associate, and executive pastor to maximize the design of leaders and their teams (www.r3church.coach). A graduate of the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies, Dean brings a deep biblical and theological understanding of worship and spiritual formation, considering them the engine for mission. Recently, he and his wife Cass made the move from the Carolinas to Northlake, TX, enticed by the presence of their two beautiful granddaughters. In his free time, Dean enjoys running, participating in F3, and reading.

  • Christian Ruch

    Christian serves as the Rector of Church of the Cross, which he and his wife Molly helped to plant in 2004. His responsibilities there include preaching, supervising the staff team, providing pastoral care, and overseeing the work of leadership development and church planting (Church of the Cross has three daughter churches in the Twin Cities). One of his favorite things to do as a pastor is to get together with people and hear about their lives and their interests. He enjoys spending time with Molly and their four kids. He also enjoys reading (novels, history, theology, movie reviews), running, traveling to new places, and working obscure cultural references into conversations.

  • Molly Ruch

    Molly Ruch loves seeing the kingdom of God expand on earth. She and her husband Christian planted Church of the Cross in Hopkins, Minnesota, in 2004. Since then, she has helped in the birth of three daughter churches and one diocese and has coached multiple planters. Molly serves as Canon for Church Planting for the Upper Midwest Diocese, as the Director of Always Forward, and has coached multiple planters and lay leaders who want to get a church church started in their area. Molly desires to see pastors and their families remain resilient, which informs her work offering retreats with the Anglican Leadership Initiative.

  • Ben Sharpe

    Ben Sharpe has been planted three churches, with three additional daughter churches, since 1995 in North Carolina. Over the years he has experienced the full spectrum of joys, challenges, successes, and failures typical of church planters. He continues to cultivate long-term mentoring relationships with young pastors and church planters in various states. Ben has a particular passion and affinity for church planting in small towns and rural areas. He is an avid backpacker, gardener, and homebrewer.

  • Todd Simonis

    Rev. Todd Simonis is the Associate Rector at St. Helena’s Anglican Church in Beaufort, SC and also serves as the Canon for Church Planting for the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina. Born and raised in Wisconsin, Todd and his wife, Elizabeth, have lived in South Carolina for the past 20 years. Todd and Elizabeth have two great kids: Annie (17) and Luke (13). Todd loves cheering for his beloved Green Bay Packers and being outdoors, especially if it involves playing golf.

  • Alastair Sterne

    In 2011, Alastair planted St. Peter’s Fireside in Vancouver, B.C., and served as their lead pastor until 2023. He was diocesan Canon for Church Planting for many years for the Anglican Network in Canada (now the Anglican Diocese of Canada). He has a background in communication design, and has a Doctorate in Intercultural Studies (Fuller). He is the author of Rhythms for Life (IVP) and Longing for Joy (IVP, October 2024). He is trained by Redeemer City to City and specializes in coaching urban church planters. He enjoys helping with vision, values-based leadership, fundraising, organizational design, and the holistic health of leaders.  Alastair collects joy in Victoria, B.C. with his wife and two daugthers.

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Our Staff

  • Canon Molly Ruch

    DIRECTOR

    Molly is our director and Canon for Church Planting for the Upper Midwest Diocese. She is an experienced church planter, instructor and coach. She and her husband planted Church of the Cross in Hopkins, MN in 2004. You can read more about her below in her coaching bio.

  • Janie Williams

    ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

    Janie handles so many of the details in our office. She is also the coordinator for our coaching and our intercessory prayer team. She and her husband and five children are currently planting Mission St. James in Jackson, Tennessee.

  • Scott Hunt

    COMMUNICATION & DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT

    Scott directs our communications and digital media. He is also Communications Director for the Anglican Diocese of Canada. He and his wife and four children live in Ontario.