CONTACT:

Heidi K. Zuhl

415-749-6364 (office); 415-430-7109 (cell)

heidiz@gracecathedral.org

Grace Cathedral Installs Jane Shaw as Dean Shaw is the cathedral’s eighth – and first female – dean in its 104-year history

San Francisco, November 5, 2010 – The Very Rev. Dr. Jane Shaw will be installed on Nov. 6 as

the eighth dean of Grace Cathedral.

Nationally and internationally recognized leaders of the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal

Church, the academic world and the interfaith community will gather for Shaw’s installation,

which will take place during Evensong, a distinctively Anglican service where the Word of God

is illuminated by music. She will be installed by the Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus, Bishop of

California.

“I am honored to assume the leadership of Grace Cathedral, a house of prayer for all, which has

played a prominent role in the city of San Francisco and the Episcopal Church for more than a

century,” said Shaw. “As its new dean, I will work to further the cathedral’s reputation as a

place abound with a thoughtful and thinking faith, and one active in civic engagement,

committed to social justice and outreach, and filled with rich liturgical music. Grace Cathedral

is truly a location to experience the divine mystery of Christ and a chance to become anew

through regular participation in liturgy.”

“Jane Shaw is a gifted preacher and one with deep expertise in liturgy. Her theological vision,

committed to the Gospel and leadership skills make her resoundingly qualified to lead Grace

Cathedral as its new dean,” said Andrus.

Shaw today is already an established leader in the Anglican Communion, of which the

Episcopal Church is a branch, an accomplished academician both in the U.S. and the U.K., a

highly regarded speaker and noted author. She will build on Grace Cathedral’s strong legacy of

the importance of a thinking and thoughtful faith, civic conversation, and engagement with the

Bay Area and wider world.

Historically, new dean installations are momentous occasions for cathedrals as they often occur

only once in a generation. For Grace Cathedral, it has been more than a quarter century since

the Very Rev. Alan Jones, the cathedral’s seventh dean, was installed. Jones served from 1984-

2009. The Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, formerly the 12th Bishop of Virginia, served as its interim

dean for a year concluding in October 2010.

On Nov. 6, Shaw will be installed as dean by Andrus. Immediately following, the Rev. Cn. Dr.

Vincent Strudwick of Oxford University and long-time mentor of Shaw’s, will deliver the

sermon.

Formerly of the University of Oxford in England, Shaw served as the Dean of Divinity and a

Fellow of New College, Oxford. In addition, she taught history and theology at the university

for 16 years; she has been at New College for nine years. She is Canon Theologian at Salisbury

Cathedral and an honorary canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.

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.

Since the late 1980s, Shaw 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 by Episcopal Divinity School. In the 1990s, she

taught at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, the Episcopal seminary in Berkeley, Calif.

Shaw has been a Visiting Professor at U.C. Berkeley, Emory University and Florida Atlantic

University.

On June 25, 2010, at a special meeting of Grace Cathedral’s Board of Trustees, the Rt. Rev. Marc

Handley Andrus, Bishop of California, nominated Shaw for the position of Grace Cathedral’s

eighth dean. The trustees enthusiastically and unanimously voted to approve her nomination.

Shaw’s installation 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.

Shaw and her partner, Sarah Ogilvie, Ph.D., live in San Francisco.

About Grace Cathedral

Grace Cathedral (www.gracecathedral.org), seat of the Bishop of the Diocese of California, is

home to a community where the best of Episcopal Christian tradition courageously embraces

innovation and open-minded conversation, where inclusion is expected and people of all faiths

are welcomed, where beliefs are put into action and where people are encouraged to seek God

and progress on their own spiritual journey. As a part of the Episcopal Diocese of California,

this renowned San Francisco landmark serves as a regional magnet where diverse people gather

to celebrate, seek solace, converse and learn.

About the Diocese of California

The Episcopal Diocese of California (www.diocal.org) has entered a new era of the Church’s life

emphasizing mission, diversity and collaboration. We believe The Episcopal Church has a

charism, a gift, to be a generous form of Christianity. The Diocese of California has embraced the

vision put forth a hundred years ago by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, later espoused by the

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that we should manifest “the beloved community” – the living

out of our essential interrelatedness in Christ.

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