Our Keynote Speakers for the 2026 Conference
The Rev’d Dr Benjamin King
Dr Benjamin King is the Academic Dean and Duncalf-Villavoso Professor of Church History at Seminary of the Southwest. His areas of research are the Oxford Movement, particularly the theology of John Henry Newman; the development of the Anglican Communion; and the Episcopal Church's historic entanglement with slavery. He is the author of two books and editor of two more: Newman and the Alexandrian Fathers; The Oxford Movement and the People of God: Enslavement, Education, and Empire; Receptions of Newman; and The Oxford Handbook of John Henry Newman. He has written numerous articles and lectured internationally. He contributed to the cause for Newman to be declared a Doctor of the Catholic Church, and when this occurred in 2025 he was part of the Anglican delegation which met Pope Leo XIV. Dr King has been an Episcopal priest since 2000.
The Rev’d Dr Jarred Mercer
The Rev’d Dr Jarred Mercer is Rector of St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Newburyport, MA. He was previously a faculty member and chaplain at the University of Oxford, UK, and a priest in the Church of England. He has published extensively on the history and thought of early Christianity, as well as in contemporary theology, including Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality: The Trinitarian Anthropology of Hilary of Poitiers (OUP, 2019), and co-authored books Love Makes No Sense: An Invitation to Christian Theology (SCM, 2019), Catechesis: An Invitation to Living Faith (SCM, 2020), and Love Makes Things Happen: An Invitation to Christian Living (SCM, 2022).His poetry is published in Blood Orange Review and he writes and teaches on poetry and faith. Fr Jarred is also the founding president of The Resettlement Partnership, a non-profit organization creating the first known system of affordable housing for refugees(theresettlementpartnership.org) and co-leads The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts’s theological education and adult formation work through The St Paul Center for Theology and Prayer (stpaulboston.org/tspc).