Instructors

School for Ministry - Instructors

Instructors are drawn from clergy and lay leaders within the Diocese. All of them have completed graduate level study in their areas of specialty, usually at the advanced degree level, or have served in ministries related to their specialties.

Rt. Rev. Lawrence Provenzano, Ecclesiology
Bishop Provenzano serves on the House of Bishops' Committee on Pastoral Development. He is an active member of Bishops United Against Gun Violence. He formerly served as President of Province II of the Episcopal Church and as a member of the Presiding Bishop's Council of Advice. Received as an Episcopal priest in 1984, Bishop Provenzano holds a Bachelor of Science from the State University of New York and a Master of Divinity from Christ the King Seminary.

Rt. Rev. Dr. R. William Franklin, Anglican Studies
Bishop Franklin is Assisting Bishop of Long Island. He was Bishop of the Diocese of Western New York from 2011 – April 2019; and previously served at St. Mark's Church, Philadelphia; at St. Paul's Within the Walls in Rome, for five years; as Associate Director of the American Academy in Rome; and Associate Priest of the Anglican Centre in Rome. Earlier, he served as Dean of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, as a professor at the General Theological Seminary in New York and at St. John's University in Minnesota. He holds a BA from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in Church History from Harvard.

The Very Rev. Dr. Michael T. Sniffen, Dean of Mercer School of Theology , Homiletics and Liturgical Theology
Michael Sniffen is Dean of the Cathedral of the Incarnation and concurrently the Dean of Mercer School of Theology. The Very Rev. Dr. Michael Sniffen has won awards in pulpit oratory and manner, as well as pastoral leadership and innovative ministry. He was a steward of the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Bishops in London and has been honored with a Luce Fellowship at the Center for Christianity in Global Contexts. His academic work has been in Liturgical Studies at Drew University from which he received the M.Div., M.Phil. and Ph. D. degrees.

Canon Dr. Ted Gerbracht, History of Christianity and Director of Academic Program
Ted Gerbracht has taught at the Mercer School for more than a decade, with a special interest in Anglican reform movements in English and North American Episcopal Church history. His doctorate, in history, is from New York University. He has served the Episcopal Church on its General Board of Examining Chaplains and is a member of its Board of the Archives.

The Rev. Canon Dr. Michael Hull
The Rev. Canon Dr. Michael Hull is the Principal and Pantonian Professor of Divinity of the Scottish Episcopal Institute, which trains women and men for ministry in the Scottish Episcopal Church, an Assistant Priest of St. Vincent's Chapel, and a Chapter Canon of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, all in Edinburgh. He is a Member of the Executive Committee of the Theological Educators’ Network and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, both in the UK. He earned his doctorate in Biblical Theology at the Gregorian University in Rome. Michael has served as an Instructor at Mercer since 2014.

The Rev. Dr. Canon Bruce D. Griffith, Th.D. , Theology
Canon Griffith is Rector Emeritus of Christ Church, Oyster Bay. Ordained in the Diocese of Minnesota, he began his ministry at St. Mark’s Cathedral, Minneapolis, and served thereafter in Toronto, Buffalo, and Rochester before coming to Long Island in 1987. He has taught theology for many years at the Mercer School and holds a research doctorate in theology from the University of Toronto.

The Rev. Dr. Sean Wallace, Liturgics
The Rev. Dr. Sean Wallace is Rector of St. George’s Hempstead. He served previously as Interim at St. Paul's Carroll Street in Brooklyn and was Curate at The Church of the Resurrection and Chantry Priest at St. Thomas Fifth Ave. from 2009 through 2017. He holds M.Div. and STM degrees from the General Theological Seminary. Before ordination he enjoyed a 20-year career as a professional musician, most recently serving as Director of Choral Activities and Vocal Studies at the University of New Orleans from 2000 to 2006.
His degrees in music include a Doctorate in Choral Conducting and Masters of Musicology from Michigan State University and a Masters of Conducting from the Eastman School of Music. His current area of research is the history of the Episcopal hymnal, and he has presented several papers on the subject at professional conferences.

The Rev. Dr. Joshua Samuel, Theology
Joshua Samuel is an ordained Priest of the Church of South India, a member of the Anglican Communion. He is currently serving at the Church of the Resurrection, Richmond Hill, and St. John’s Church, Springfield Gardens, Queens, New York. He also serves on the core advisory team of Fellowship of Anglican Scholars of Theology (FeAST), USPG, London. He received his Ph.D. in Theology and Interreligious Dialogue at the Union Theological Seminary, New York. He is the author of Untouchable Bodies, Resistance, and Liberation: A Comparative Theology of Divine Possessions (Leiden: Brill, 2020) and Church and Religious Diversity (London: CWM/Delhi:ISPCK, 2020).

Dr. Donn F. Morgan, Old Testament
Dr. Donn F. Morgan has taught Old Testament at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific since 1972 and served as President and Dean from 1995–2010. He also taught biblical studies, Christian education, homiletics and other multidisciplinary courses and topics. His special interests include biblical wisdom literature, the Psalms, scripture and canon, the Writings, and the post-exilic period of ancient Israel. He is the author of six books, including Between Text & Community and Fighting with the Bible, and recently edited The Oxford Handbook of the Writings of the Hebrew Bible.

Dr. Robert J. Owens, Old Testament
Dr. Robert J. Owens served as Professor of Old Testament at The General Theological Seminary from 2001 until his retirement in 2016. He previously taught at Emmanuel Christian Seminary and the Ecumenical Institute of St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, and was Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College in Oxford University, UK. A specialist in the Hebrew Bible and its earliest versions, Dr. Owens has published a number of articles and books on the Bible of the ancient Syriac-speaking church, most recently The Syriac Peshitta Bible with English Translation: Proverbs, Qoheleth, and Song of Songs (2022).

The Rev. Joseph Campo, Episcopal Church Polity and Ecclesial Law
The Rev. Joseph Campo, M.A., J.C.L. was ordained in 1975 after four years of theological study at the Gregorian University in Rome. He received his Licentiate in Canon Law from St. Paul's University in Ottawa, Ontario in 1983. "Fr. Joe" has served as a parish priest and pastor in both the Roman Catholic and Episcopal Churches.
He has taught ecclesial law as an adjunct professor in both Roman and Episcopal seminaries. He also served as a member and later chair of the New York Diocesan Ecumenical Commission.

Dr. Ian Kinman
Dr. Ian Kinman has taught courses in the New Testament and other topics at Fordham University, Villanova University, Saint Joseph’s University, and elsewhere since 2010. He has also taught courses in the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, theodicy, world religions, and the religious architecture of antiquity. He has a PhD from Fordham University in Biblical Studies, and holds Masters degrees in biblical studies from General Theological Seminary, Women and Gender studies from Harvard Divinity School, and Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University. He lives in Bronxville with his wonderful wife and a few too many adoring cats.

Dr. Laura Nelson
Laura Nelson, Ph.D., obtained her doctorate in Philosophy from Fordham University, and has taught at various universities in the tri-state area, including Hofstra University, Molloy College, Pace University, and The New School. She specializes in Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, and contemporary analytic and continental philosophy. She has also worked in educational I.T., and writes for Public Seminar and Medium.

Melissa Chim
Melissa Chim is the Scholarly Communications Librarian for Excelsior University. She was formerly the Reference Librarian and Archivist for the General Theological Seminary. She teaches courses on theological research and writing for Mercer. Her first book, Living Archives: A History of the Center for Christian Spirituality (co-authored with Dr. Anne Silver) was published summer 2022. She earned an MA in European History from Queen Mary, the University of London and her MLIS from St. John's University. She was a SPARC Open Education Leadership Fellow for their 2022-2023 cohort.

The Rev. Spencer Cantrell, Philosophy for Theology
The Rev. Spencer Cantrell Philosophy for Theology serves as Curate at All Saints’ Church in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He holds degrees in Philosophy/Religion from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Divinity from General Theological Seminary, where he received the Bishop of Newark Preaching Prize and the Martyrs of Memphis Award for Outstanding Service. Previously he served as Pastoral Associate at St. Mary’s Harlem and as a Chaplain Resident at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.

The Rev. Jenn Pilat, Liturgics
Rev. Jenn is Rector of The Episcopal Church of St. Anselm of Canterbury in Shoreham, NY. Originally from Columbia, SC, Rev Jenn has degrees in Music Education, Spanish, Linguistics, and Educational Administration from the University of South Carolina. Rev. Jenn also has an M.Div from Virginia Theological Seminary and is currently a student in the D.Min program (in Liturgy) at the Seminary of the South, Sewanee. In addition to being a thoughtful liturgist and passionate educator, Rev. Jenn is a foster parent, boy scout leader, Navy chaplain, and avid collector of antique hymnals and microbrand watches.

The Rev. Dr. Clair McPherson
Clair McPherson has been a priest in the episcopal church for forty-two years, serving in New York, Chicago, and St. Louis, and has taught at Seabury-Western, Nashotah House, and General Theological Seminaries, and at New York University and Fordham College Lincoln Center. He has published many translations, scholarly articles, and original poems, and is the author of five books: Grace at this Time, Understanding Faith, Keeping Silence, Nilus of Ancyra, Byzantine Ascetic and Theologian, and Hrabanus Maurus: Carolingian Theologian and Writer. He is currently working on a study and translation. Of the Cappadocian Fathers (and Mothers). His specialty is Late Antiquity (Patristics) and the Early Middle Ages.