VTS Alumni Named New Dean of Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem

5/3/2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Curtis Prather
Tel: 703-461-1782
Email: cprather@vts.edu

[Alexandria, VA]  - The Right Reverend Suheil S. Dawani (VTS M.Div. ’87, D.Min. ’92, D.D. ‘06), the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, announced this week the appointment of the Reverend Canon Hosam Elias Naoum (VTS MTS ‘11) as the new Dean of the Cathedral Church of Saint George the Martyr in Jerusalem.

“I call upon all our partners and friends around the Anglican Communion to hold Hosam and his family (Rafa, Wadi, Laurice and Krista) in their prayers and support,” Bishop Dawani said. “May his term as the Dean of the Cathedral be a blessing to many and to the glory of God.”

Naoum, 38, has served as the Canon Pastor of the Cathedral since 2005, and was the Acting Dean for three years (2007-2009). He did his first theological training at the College of the Transfiguration and Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, and then completed a Master of Theological Study degree at Virginia Theological Seminary in 2011.

The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D., dean and president of Virginia Theological Seminary, said, “The Seminary considered it a privilege to train Canon Naoum for this important ministry. We celebrate with him and his family as he becomes the Dean of the Cathedral.  We commit to remembering him in our prayers as he takes the important position both for Jerusalem and for the Anglican Communion.”

Naoum, who will be installed as Dean in St. George’s Cathedral on Ascension Day, May 17, 2012, will continue to serve the Diocese of Jerusalem and the worldwide Anglican Communion as Pastor to the Arabic and English-Speaking Congregations at the Cathedral.

“The Cathedral is very blessed,” said the Rev. James Barney Hawkins IV, Ph.D., vice-president for Institutional Advancement and the associate dean for the Center for Anglican Communion Studies at Virginia Theological Seminary. “Canon Naoum served at Immanuel-Church-on-the-Hill while at VTS, and I saw first-hand his love for the life of the Church.”

Established in 1899, St. George's Cathedral is the seat of the Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East.

Founded in 1823, Virginia Theological Seminary is the largest of the 11 accredited seminaries of the Episcopal Church. The school prepares men and women, representing more than 40 different dioceses and nine different countries, for service in the Church, both as ordained and lay ministers, and offers a number of professional degree programs and diplomas.

Photo courtesy of the Cathedral Church of Saint George the Martyr in Jerusalem