The Vancouver School Theology, of which St. Andrew’s Hall is a part, has appointed three new faculty members.
Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee is the inaugural appointment to the Butler Chair in Homiletics and Biblical Hermeneutics at VST. Byassee studied at Davidson College and Duke University, where he earned a Ph.D. in systematic theology in 2005. He was most recently senior pastor of Boone United Methodist Church in Boone, North Carolina. He is the author of six books, most recently Trinity: The God We Don’t Know. His deepest hope is to serve the church as a teaching pastor. To that end he writes on many topics including theology, church history, politics, liturgy, popular culture and spiritual practices. His primary vocation is to reinvigorate today’s church with the best of ancient and contemporary wisdom for creatively faithful living.
Rev. Ray Aldred has been appointed as the incoming Director of VST’s Indigenous Studies Program. Aldred is status Cree from Treaty 8 land in Northern Alberta. His first pastorate was the First Nations Alliance Church of Regina, Saskatchewan. While pastoring there, Ray served as the Director of the First Nations Alliance Church of Canada from 1996-2004, and was most recently Assistant Professor of Theology at Ambrose Seminary in Calgary, Alberta. He is currently the chairperson of Indigenous Pathways, working to come alongside communities to help them build on their own capacity. Ray is also involved in ministry with his wife, Elaine. Together they are involved with a ministry called With My People, helping to train facilitators of support groups for people who have suffered abuse.
Rabbi Dr. Laura Duhan Kaplan has been appointed as Director of Inter-Religious Studies and Professor of Jewish Studies, effective July 1. Duhan Kaplan holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Education from Claremont Graduate University, and a Graduate Diploma in Spiritual Direction from Vancouver School of Theology. From 1989-2004, she served as Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and coordinated their Women’s Studies program. Her books include Philosophy and Everyday Life, Family Pictures: A Philosopher Explores the Familiar, and two co-edited volumes on the Philosophy of Peace. For her innovative work helping students use philosophy to explore their life narratives, she received five teaching awards, including the Carnegie Foundation’s U.S. Professor of the Year award. From 2005-2014, she served as Rabbi at Or Shalom Synagogue in Vancouver, contributing to the larger local community as co-chair of the Canadian Jewish Congress Jewish-Christian dialogue.
