The Rev. Joel Scandrett, a theology professor and priest of the Anglican Church in North America, will be interim director of the Robert E. Webber Center for an Ancient Evangelical Future as it moves from the suburbs of Chicago to Trinity School for Ministry. Scandrett will begin his work July 1.
“This is a very exciting moment for Trinity,” said the Very Rev. Justyn Terry, dean and president of Trinity School for Ministry, in announcing Scandrett’s appointment. “The vision of the Robert E. Webber Center is a very good fit for our own identity as a global center for Christian formation. We are pleased to come alongside the center and to engage in this pioneering work.”
Scandrett is a 1984 graduate of Wheaton College and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He earned an additional master’s degree in theological studies at Wheaton, and completed a Ph.D. in theological and religious studies at Drew Theological School.
He has served as an adjunct professor of theology at Trinity, at Wheaton and at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Ill., where the Webber center has been based.
From November 2010 to April 2011 he was interim rector of the Church of Christ the King, Evanston.
Webber, a theology professor at Wheaton and later at Northern Seminary, wrote many books on worship and spiritual formation, including Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail, Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World, and Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative.
Webber died in 2007. Joanne Webber, his widow, and David Neff, editor in chief of Christianity Today, founded the Robert E. Webber Center for an Ancient Evangelical Future, and Neff served as its first director.
“I have been delighted that Trinity School for Ministry has recognized the many points of contact between the work of the late Robert Webber and Trinity’s mission” Neff said. “The new Robert E. Webber Center at Trinity School for Ministry will be a place where Dr. Webber’s theological and social insights can be brought to bear on the ministry challenges of 2012 and beyond. I’m also thrilled that Joel Scandrett has agreed to take on responsibility for directing the renewed Webber Center through its early years. Joel’s experience in teaching and his ministry in a renewed Anglican context complement his personal history with Robert Webber to make him an ideal choice for this initiative.”
The center bases its work on “A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future,” which was issued in 2006 and signed by more than 500 evangelical leaders.
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
