WEEK EIGHT—AUGUST 11-16

The Right Rev. John Bryson Chane, D.D.
Eighth Bishop of Washington, Ret.

The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane, D.D. was consecrated the Eighth Bishop of Washington on June 1, 2002 and served until November, 2011. A graduate of Boston University and the Berkeley Center at Yale Divinity School, he has received honorary doctorate degrees from the Virginia Theological Seminary, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge.

While in Washington Bishop Chane participated as a contributor to the Washington Post’s “On Faith” series, as well as appeared on all the major news programs, including Al Jezeera. He was featured in a three part PBS Television series, “Three Faiths, One God,” and “The Asian and Abrahamic Religions: A Divine Encounter in America.” He continues to serve as the Anglican “Principal” for the ongoing work of the Christian Muslim Summit held in Washington D.C, Tripoli, and Beirut, Lebanon.

As a leader in inter-faith dialogue and study, Bishop Chane has been an invited guest of former Iranian President Khatami, and has met with the current Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini. In 2011 he was instrumental in freeing the American hikers who were held prisoner by Iranian authorities for a disputed border crossing from Afghanistan into Iran. He participated as a presenter at three conferences held in Oslo and Tehran sponsored by the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, and he continues to work with the Brookings Institution of Washington D.C. as a conference leader in the annual “U.S. Islamic World Forum,” held in Doha, Qatar, and to participate in the work of the Council of Foreign Relations in New York City.