Announcing Our First International Alumni Council President: Rev. Dr. Stephen Hance

Asbury Theological Seminary announces the election of its first international Alumni Council President:

The Very Reverend Doctor Stephen Hance.

Stephen was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England in 1993 and as a priest in 1994. Having served in several dioceses, he was most recently the Dean of Derby. In the summer of 2019 he was appointed as the new National Lead for Evangelism and Witness in the Church of England, a role he took up that September.

In this key role, he is working with dioceses, churches, and other organizations to equip the Church’s million regular worshippers to be effective witnesses in every facet of their lives and to enable the Church to grow. He is also responsible for a national project to identify, equip, and release 1,000 new evangelists in the Church of England by 2025.

Stephen was born in Kisumu, Kenya. His undergraduate studies were in sociology, after which he entered St. John’s College, Nottingham, to train for the ordained ministry. He took postgraduate work in mission and ministry and graduated with his Master of Arts from Nottingham. After a number of years of study at Asbury Seminary in the Beeson Pastor program, he completed his Doctor of Ministry degree in missional church leadership in 2009.

Stephen has written, edited, or contributed to books on parenting, confirmation, forgiveness, evangelism, and fresh expressions of Church. He is married to Jacqui, who works on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Evangelism and Witness team at Lambeth Palace. They live in Streatham, south London. They have three children.

We are excited to benefit from Stephen’s leadership and the unique gifts and graces God has given him as our Alumni Council seeks to serve as the bridge that connects our more than 11,000 alumni across the globe to our leadership here at Asbury Theological Seminary.