Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas, Ph.D
The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas, Ph.D. is the 15th Bishop Diocesan of The Episcopal Church in Connecticut, serving approximately 170 parishes and faith communities in the state of Connecticut. Elected in October 2010, he was ordained bishop in April 2010. Previously he was, for twenty-two years, the Angus Dun Professor of Mission and World Christianity at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Priest Associate at St. James’s Episcopal Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Douglas has worked as a Volunteer for Mission in the Episcopal Church of Haiti and as Associate for Overseas Leadership Development at The Episcopal Church Center in New York. He has been a member of the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church, and Chair of the Standing Commission on World Mission. Douglas is past Convener of the Episcopal Seminary Consultation on Mission and a founder of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation.
Elected by the 14th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in 2009, Douglas is a member of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion. He has served on the Design Group for the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops, a member of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Mission and Evangelism, and a Consultant for Theological Education in the Anglican Communion (TEAC).
A sought-after speaker nationally and internationally, Douglas is the author/editor of four books and academic and popular articles on the topics of mission, the missional Church, contemporary Anglicanism, and world Christianity. Douglas has studied at Middlebury College (B.A.), the Harvard University Graduate School of Education (Ed.M.), and Harvard Divinity School (M.Div.). He holds a Ph.D. in missiology from Boston University.
For his work on the Design Group for the 2008 Lambeth Conference, former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has awarded Douglas the Cross of St. Augustine, the highest honor in the Anglican Communion. He has received honorary doctorates from the Episcopal Divinity School and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.
Douglas resides in Essex, Connecticut with his wife, Kristin Harris. They are the parents of three young adult children, Luke (age 27), Timothy (age 25), and Johanna (age 21). Ian and Kristin enjoy fitness training and outdoor activities including sailing, kayaking, skiing and walking their dog, Abby.
Sharon Ely Pearson
Sharon Ely Pearson joined Church Publishing Incorporated (CPI) as their Christian Formation Specialist in 2007 and was named an editor in 2013. From 1997-2006 she served as Children’s Ministries & Christian Education Coordinator in the Diocese of Connecticut. She taught in public and private schools in special education and nursery school settings before being called as a lay professional in the Church.
A lifelong Episcopalian with experience in Christian formation on the local, judicatory and church-wide level, she has served on the Standing Commission on Lifelong Christian Formation and Education, The Episcopal Council for Christian Education, and chair of the Province One Formation Network. A former EfM mentor, she is also a certified Godly Play teacher. She is a graduate of Southern Connecticut State University with a BS in Special Education, has a certificate in Christian Education from Hartford Seminary, and an MA from Virginia Theological Seminary.
Known for her knowledge of the variety of published curricula across the church, she has also had her hand in the birthing of The Prayer Book Guide to Christian Education, 3rd edition (2009), Call on Me: A Prayer Book for Young People (2012), The Episcopal Christian Educator’s Handbook (2013), Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Theologies of Confirmation for the 21st Century (May, 2014) and Marked for Mission: Youth in Action (July, 2014).
She is the founder of Building Faith (www.buildfaith.org) a comprehensive Christian formation website now curated by the Center of the Ministry of Teaching at Virginia Seminary. You can read her thoughts and musing at Rows of Sharon (www.rowsofsharon.com) and lectionary reflections at The Prayer Book Guide to Christian Education (www.prayerbookguide.com).
She lives in Norwalk, Connecticut with John, her husband of 37 years, a 17.5 lb. cat named Shadow, and Chobe, a two-year-old, a compulsive-tennis-ball-fetching rescue black lab. They have two adult children, Becca (32) and Chris (29), both teachers in the Hartford Public Schools. She enjoys travelling, good food and wine, and digging in the dirt attempting to garden.
Dr. Julie Lytle
Life Lover. Curious Innovator. Natural Networker. Dr. Julie Lytle’s expansive career links theology, faith formation, and technology to connect people with one another and provide them access to the resources they need to enact the Dream of God. Particularly interested in how environments fashion and form individuals and communities, her 2013 book Faith Formation 4.0: Introducing an Ecology of Faith in a Digital Age explores the ways each of the four eras of human communication (oral, written, mass mediated, and interactive) have influenced the ways Christians “proclaim the Gospel” (Evangelization) and “make Christians” (Faith Formation). She is best known for her mantra, “Message, Method, then Media.”
A practical theologian and digital evangelist, Julie’s perspective, skills, processes, and practices are anchored in over thirty years’ experience integrating ministry and media in parish, diocesan, church-wide, academic, and health care contexts. She concurrently is Executive Director of Province I serving the seven dioceses of New England and is CEO/Theological Education Media Consultant for her company M3, with clients that include Claremont School of Theology, Virginia Theological Seminary, The Episcopal Church Foundation, The Episcopal Church, and ChurchNEXT.
Prior to launching M3, Julie led the development of the Episcopal Divinity School’s innovative Distributed Learning Masters option and the creation of EDSConnect, its lifelong formation and education division. She was drawn into faith formation first as an adult youth minister and then director of the Kingdom Construction Company, a total youth ministry program for 6th-12th graders. Her creativity has been awarded with the 2005 TeleSpan Wild and Unexpected Award and 2001 PictureTel Best Practices for Interpreters Carelink, a videoconference-based hospital emergency room interpreter service for the deaf, hard of hearing, and non-native English speakers and the 2002 Catholic Press Association Best Web Site for OnceCatholic.org.
Julie holds an interdisciplinary doctorate in Religion and Education from Boston College, a Master of Divinity degree from the University of Notre Dame, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Advertising from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a member of the Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Ministry Development and is a founding member of the Association of Theological School’s Technology in Theological Education group.
Julie lives on Cape Cod with her wife, The Rev. Carol Bolstad and their four-paws: Boston Terriers Maxine (the princess) and Titus (the energizer bunny) and Calico cat Autumn. She loves kayaking through salt marshes, seeing the world through her Canon Rebel XT, exploring museums and antique markets, conversing with friends — old and new, and sharing knowledge and skills she has gained with others.
Christopher Hingley
Christopher Hingley works in Zimbabwe as Overseas Ambassador of the Petra Schools. His role combines pastoral ministry within the schools with trips overseas to talk about what God is doing in Zimbabwe and at Petra, and to build links between the schools and friends overseas.
The Petra Schools are Christian schools (primary and secondary) whose aim is to give young people a future and a hope through education, despite an unprecedented situation of political interference and economic catastrophe. Their purpose is to do this through:
1. Welcome of all without distinction of race, gender, religion, income or ability;
2. Reconciliation through a Christian approach to forgiveness;
3. Transformation of society as a whole.
Christopher was brought up in what was then called Rhodesia, and educated there and in England, where he read Classics and Theology at Oxford University. Almost all his working life has been in Zimbabwe, where he has been involved in education and in the church, apart from five years in the ‘80s as Tutor in Greek and New Testament at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford.
He was ordained in the Anglican Diocese of Matabeleland in 1982 and is licensed to officiate there, though most of his ministry is in an inter-denominational context in Zimbabwe. On recent overseas trips, Chris has spoken in Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and Inter-denominational churches, theological colleges and schools in England, Scotland, Switzerland, Malta, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Actively involved in Christians Together for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, Chris has worked with clergy and lay people from many churches to witness in Zimbabwe to Christian values of justice and truth. He has written on Spirituality and Spiritual Direction, including for the New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology, published by Inter Varsity Press. Some of his articles have been translated into Chinese and Korean.
After ten years as Rector of the Petra Schools, Chris is now free from the burden of having overall responsibility for running the schools, to begin a new role emphasizing pastoral availability instead. His presentations overseas are not another tale of woe and gloom. There is plenty of that in Zimbabwe, and justifiably, but Chris brings his and the Petra Schools’ determination to do more than just tread water and stay still . . . in fact, to grow and develop despite the current crisis.