It is with great joy that we announce Christopher Bryan as our newest Theologian in Residence at Christ Church Cranbrook. He will lead the 9 AM Forum on Sunday, May 14, which is Mother’s Day, and also present a Lunch & Learn the following weekend on Sunday, May 21 – mark your calendars!
Christopher Bryan is a British theologian, priest, and scholar who was born in London in 1934. Bryan studied for the priesthood at Ripon Hall Theological College in Oxford and was ordained to the diaconate of the Church of England in 1960 and to the priesthood in 1961. He began his ministry as an assistant priest at St. Mark’s Church in Surrey.
Following his years in parish ministry, Bryan was appointed Tutor in New Testament at Salisbury Theological College, where he would serve until 1971 as Tutor and subsequently as Vice-Principal. He taught at various times in the Bahamas, Britain, Canada, Haiti, Israel, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States. From 1974 to 1979, he worked as an education officer in the diocese of London, and from ’79 to 1983 as part-time faculty and chaplain at the School of Education at the University of Exeter, where he completed his Ph.D. He began teaching at the University of the South in 1983.
Bryan edited the Sewanee Theological Review, one of the only two Anglican journals of theological reflection at present published in the United States, since 1991. In 2000 he was appointed to a chair as C. K. Benedict Professor of New Testament at The University of the South. In October 2012, in recognition of his services to the church and the academy, the University of the South awarded him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa.
Now in “semi-retirement,” Bryan continues to write, both non-fiction and fiction, to teach and to serve the church as a priest. Several of his most important nonfiction works include The Resurrection of the Messiah (Oxford, 2011), Listening to the Bible: The Art of Faithful Biblical Interpretation (Oxford, 2013), and Son of God: Reflections on a Tradition (Oxford, 2023). His fiction novel series began with Siding Star in 2012, followed up with six other books, with the latest being Death at Sea in 2019.
Read Christopher Bryan’s full biography here: www.ccc-info.org/bio
I am deeply looking forward to Dr Bryan’s visit to our Christ Church Cranbrook community with great excitement, anticipation and gratitude!