Dean Search
Grace Cathedral Names Jane Alison Shaw as its Eighth Dean
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Photography by Robert Taylor www.taylor-photo.co.uk |
On June 25, Grace Cathedral’s Board of Trustees by unanimous roll call vote enthusiastically approved the nomination of the Rev. Canon Dr. Jane Alison Shaw as the eighth dean of Grace Cathedral. She was nominated by the Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus after an extensive search process.
"Jane Shaw's spiritual depth, commitment to the Gospel, theological vision and leadership skills make her uniquely qualified to help guide Grace Cathedral into its second century," said the Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus, Bishop of California.
Dr. Shaw joins Grace Cathedral from the University of Oxford in England where she has served as the Dean of Divinity and a Fellow of New College, Oxford. In addition, she has taught history and theology at the university.
Serving with distinction as a priest, academic theologian and historian, Dr. Shaw brings powerful preaching and deep expertise in liturgy, management and administration, program development, teaching, community building and fundraising.
Dr. Shaw is known internationally for her exceptional talents in the communication of Christianity in the public sphere. In Great Britain, she has been successful in bridging differences in governance and policies pertaining to inclusion, and has served as Theological Consultant to the Church of England House of Bishops. Dr. Shaw is Canon Theologian at Salisbury Cathedral and an honorary canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.
Dr. Shaw’s appointment is the result of a global search by the Dean Search Committee, a group of 17 cathedral and diocesan thought leaders, led by chair Valerie Crane Dorfman and co-chair Tobias Keller. Crane Dorfman and Keller are cathedral trustees and congregation members.
"The thorough, 18-month discernment process, which asked, 'Who will be our next dean?' led us to meet many talented candidates and carefully discern the goals and vision of Grace Cathedral," said Greg Scott, chair of the cathedral’s Board of Trustees. "Through a period of careful discernment, we found that Jane Shaw was the right fit for us."
Residing in the U.S. isn’t entirely new for Dr. Shaw. Since the late 1980s, she has studied or held academic positions at several United States institutions of higher education. She earned a Master’s of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School in 1988 and a Ph.D. in History from the University of California at Berkeley in 1994. In 2006, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Episcopal Divinity School. In the 1990s, she taught at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, the Episcopal seminary in Berkeley, Calif. Dr. Shaw has been a Visiting Professor at U.C. Berkeley, Emory University, and Florida Atlantic University.
This appointment comes a century after the installation of the Grace Cathedral's first dean, the Very Rev. James Wilmer Gresham, who served the cathedral for almost three decades, from 1910 to 1939.
Future editions of Cathedral Highlights and Grace Cathedral's website will provide more information about Dr. Shaw and her installation as our new dean.