The Very Rev. Dr. Graham M. Smith

DEAN

The Very Rev. Dr. Graham M. Smith became the Dean of St. George’s College in October 2011. He was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where his father was the organist at St. John’s Cathedral. His family moved to Yonkers, New York where he was raised. He graduated from Fordham University in 1970, majoring in Russian Studies and Political Philosophy. After receiving a Master of Divinity degree from The Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he served as an assistant at St. Peters Episcopal Church in Lakewood and as rector of Church of the Good Shepherd in Lyndhurst, Ohio. He then served as rector of St. David’s Glenview, Illinois from 1992, prior to coming to St. George’s.

In 1997 he received his Doctor of Ministry degree from The Virginia Theological Seminary with a project dissertation on Servant Leadership. It was in the doctoral program that he first met Bishop Suheil Dawani, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem. His priorities in parish ministry have included Christian formation, a flourishing music ministry, local outreach and vital connections to the Anglican church in Madagascar, Kenya, Chile and Jerusalem.

Dean Smith is married to Sherry, who has served as a hospice nurse. They have two grown children, a daughter-in-law and three grandchildren.

 

The Rev. Dr. Kamal Farah

COURSE DIRECTOR

Fr Kamal Farah, Course Director, was born in the village of Kefar Bar’am in upper Galilee. He received his PhD in Advanced Linguistics from the Catholic University at the Sorbonne-Paris. Ordained to the Priesthood in 1967, he served as rector of churches in North Galilee and Nazareth. He then returned to academia to pursue a second PhD at the Sorbonne in State-Church Laws. These studies prepared him to serve as President of the Church Court in both Galilee and Jerusalem and later as Director of the Episcopal Diocesan Church Office in Jerusalem. Moving to Amman, he directed the “Schneller Vocational School” and the Bishop’s Episcopal School.

From 2000 through 2003 he was Course Director at St. George’s College and then continued as Academic Dean and Senior Lecturer at St. George’s. His academic specialties include teaching on the New Testament, the historical and theological Jesus Christ and Human Rights Advocacy. He is fluent in Aramaic, Syrian, Arabic and Hebrew with a particular love for the Eastern Churches.

We are thrilled to have Fr. Kamal back at St. George’s as Course Director. He has led numerous courses as a scholar and a pastor. His understanding of the Holy Land, along with his extraordinary teaching gifts, make him an ideal person to oversee the courses. Participants will have a profound experience learning under him and deepening their faith.