As of April 4, Rev. Dr. Jonathan Dent is the new national director of the Canadian Bible Society.
“It’s a very interesting time in Canadian culture to be addressing the relevance of the Bible,” he said. “I think it’s probably being questioned more than ever before in mainstream society—something like the place of the church in the society, too.
“Regardless of varying and differences of opinion, interpretation of scriptures, we hold strongly to the belief that scriptures give us not only our mandate as a church, our mission, but also our reason for being and our relevance in today’s society.”
Dent has been a longtime supporter of the Canadian Bible Society, and served on the board of governors for the past six years. He says in his new role he hopes to rebuild some of the regional ministries across the country, which were wound down following the 2008 financial crisis, and to continue to build on the society’s work in aboriginal language and digital projects.
There are a lot of things he will miss about pastoral ministry, Dent said. He has served congregations across Canada, from British Columbia to Newfoundland, where until the end of March he served as minister at St. David’s Presbyterian.
He now plans to relocate to Toronto where he will work out of the Bible society’s national office.
