John Bryson Chane

The Right Reverend

John Bryson Chane
Bishop of Washington
Chane in the Iranian city of Qom during his meeting with Naser Makarem Shirazi, 10 October 2007
ChurchEpiscopal Church
DioceseWashington
ElectedJanuary 26, 2002
In office2002–2011
PredecessorRonald H. Haines
SuccessorMariann Edgar Budde
Orders
OrdinationJune 24, 1972 (deacon)
January 6, 1973 (priest)
ConsecrationJune 1, 2002
by Frank Griswold
Personal details
Born (1944-05-13) May 13, 1944 (age 80)
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
DenominationAnglican
SpouseKaren Chane

John Bryson Chane (born May 13, 1944[1]) is a retired bishop of the Episcopal Church. The eighth diocesan bishop of Washington, he was consecrated at Washington National Cathedral on June 1, 2002, leading the Episcopal Diocese of Washington until he retired in November 2011. During this time, he also served between June 2003 and April 2005 as interim dean of Washington National Cathedral. In his role as Bishop of Washington, Chane served as president and CEO of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, which oversees the operations of Washington National Cathedral and the three cathedral schools: St. Alban's School for Boys, the National Cathedral School for Girls, and Beauvoir, the National Cathedral Elementary School.[2]

Washingtonian Magazine named him as one of the 150 most influential leaders in the District of Columbia. The Sunday Telegraph in London called him one of the most prominent leaders in the Anglican Communion.[3]

A leader in global interfaith dialogue and study,[4][5][6][7] Chane traveled to Iran on numerous occasions as the invited guest of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. In late 2011, he was part of a four-person delegation that traveled to Tehran, and was instrumental in freeing the American hikers[8] held in Evin Prison.[9] He is one of the few from the West who has ever met with the current Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khameni.[10]

Chane has participated as a presenter at conferences in Oslo [11] and Tehran sponsored by the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, the Club de Madrid, and Le Dialogue des Civilizations, focusing on religion, politics and terrorism, religion and politics and gender equality.[12] He continues to work with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., as a planner and presenter at the annual U.S. Islamic World Forum, held in Doha, Qatar.

He has spoken on numerous occasions at the Industrial College of The Armed Forces in Washington D.C., the U.S. Secretary of State's Open Forum and as the Anglican principal at the semi-annual Christian-Muslim Summit sponsored by Washington National Cathedral.[13] A respected speaker and charismatic preacher, he has been invited on several occasions by the Chautauqua Institution of New York to serve as Preacher in Residence.

Chane has been the recipient of various awards, including D.C.'s Interfaith Bridge Builders Award, the George Washington University President's Medal, the Berea College Founder's Medal, Search for Common Ground's Award for Global Peace and Reconciliation, the Rumi Forum's Global Peace Award and the Yale Divinity School's Lux et Veritas Award. He was a contributing author to Iraq Uncensored, an initiative of the bipartisan American Security Project,[14]

On January 30, 2010, Chane announced his intention to retire as Episcopal Bishop of Washington, stepping down from that role in 2011.[15] The ninth bishop, Mariann Edgar Budde, was consecrated and installed at Washington National Cathedral on November 12, 2011.[16]

  1. ^ Episcopal Clerical Directory 2013 (2013). New York: Church Publishing Inc. ISBN 978-0-89869-888-6, p. 175.
  2. ^ Biography of Bishop John Bryson Chane Archived 2009-03-13 at the Wayback Machine Episcopal Diocese of Washington
  3. ^ Boorstein, Michelle (January 31, 2010). "D.C.'s Episcopal bishop, known for liberal causes, to retire". The Washington Post.
  4. ^ "Interfaith Dialog | C-SPAN.org".
  5. ^ "Pushing Past Terror to Understanding".
  6. ^ "Fear, hatred, slaughter marks of heresy -- not God". CNN. 21 January 2015.
  7. ^ "Chane embraces 'radical' label while building interfaith bridges". 14 August 2012.
  8. ^ "Mission to Iran improves relations with dialogue". 20 September 2011.
  9. ^ "Episcopal News Service - NEWS". Archived from the original on 2012-01-27. Retrieved 2018-11-08.
  10. ^ "In Iran, Supreme Leader Wields True Power". NPR.org.
  11. ^ https://unaoc.org/repository/oslo_conference_statement.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  12. ^ "Bishop John Bryson Chane delivers speech on respecting diversity on behalf of the US delegation at the OSCE tolerance meeting in Astana - Council for Global Equality".
  13. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-11-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. ^ "Just Released – Iraq Uncensored".
  15. ^ Bishop John Bryson Chane's Retirement announcement Episcopal Diocese of Washington
  16. ^ "Homepage".