Washington National Cathedral Announces New Dean
The Rev. Canon Gary R. Hall to Become 10th Dean
The Cathedral Chapter is pleased to announce the selection of the Rev. Canon Gary R. Hall as the tenth dean of Washington National Cathedral. Hall has been an ordained minister for more than 35 years and currently is serving as rector of Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. A search committee recommended him from among a diverse pool of candidates from across the country in a process that spanned more than seven months.
View a photo gallery of Hall’s recent visit »
The Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation Board of Trustees, which oversees the Cathedral, approved the nomination on August 17. (A 20-day review was mandated by the Foundation’s bylaws.) Hall begins at the Cathedral on October 1. He will succeed the Rev. Dr. Samuel T. Lloyd III, who stepped down as the Cathedral’s dean in September 2011 to return as priest-in-charge of Boston’s Trinity Church, Copley Square, where Lloyd had previously served as rector. The Rev. Dr. Francis H. Wade has served as interim dean on a part-time basis since January.
Prior to his post in Michigan, Hall served as dean and president of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., from 2005 to 2010. Before that he served as rector of the Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr, Penn., from 2000 to 2005. And for 11 years prior, he served as the senior associate for education at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., one of the largest and most influential parishes on the west coast.
Hall was born September 22, 1949, in Los Angeles, Calif. He earned an A.B. in English at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972, before enrolling at the Episcopal Divinity School at Cambridge, Mass. He earned his M.Div. degree in 1976 with distinction and started his career as a deacon intern and Bishop’s Chaplain in Los Angeles. He later earned a master’s degree in English from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1984. He added a C.Phil. (Candidate of Philosophy) credential in 1987 and a Ph.D. in English in 1989, both from UCLA.
Within the Episcopal Church, Hall has served as an interim rector in Taunton, Mass.; as associate rector at Christ Church Cranbrook (to which he returned as rector in 2010); and at parishes in California including in Westlake Village, Malibu, and La Canada.