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Date: March 30, 1998
Rev. JoAnn Z. Leach Installed as Episcopal Chaplain at Princeton
Princeton, N.J.&endash;The Rev. JoAnn Z. Leach, formerly Episcopal chaplain at the University of Utah, has been installed as the new chaplain of the Episcopal Church at Princeton (ECP). Leach was installed on Sunday, March 29, at the Princeton University Chapel by the Right Rev. Joe Morris Doss, Episcopal Bishop for the Diocese of New Jersey.
"JoAnn Leach is an outstanding person to serve the ECP and, as chaplain, to represent the chaplaincy at Princeton in the national campus ministry efforts of the Episcopal Church," said Morris, who is also president of the William Alexander Procter Foundation, which officially called Leach to her new position.
The appointment comes at an exciting time for the ECP, a healthy, diverse and growing community of about 100 students. "Rev. Leach has brought new energy and ideas to ECP, attracting new students and engaging the existing group," said Princeton students Christopher Beeson, Class of 1998, and Jaynie Randall, Class of 1999, the student leaders of ECP.
"Princeton University takes seriously and supports the religious life of its students, faculty and staff," Leach said. "I am delighted to serve within this context and to further the good work of many Episcopal chaplains who have preceded me at Princeton. I am grateful to find a strong student faith community on the Princeton campus and look forward to working with these young people and with their teachers and mentors as we all strive to balance our spiritual and our secular lives."
Leach had served as the Episcopal chaplain at the University of Utah since 1990. There, she developed a residential campus ministry which provides worship, pastoral care, teaching, social outreach and crisis intervention. Previously, she served as canon at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark’s in Salt Lake City, as chaplain and counselor at Rowland Hall/St. Mark’s, an Episcopal School in Salt Lake City, and as youth minister at All Soul’s Church in Berkeley, Calif.
A graduate of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Leach received her master’s of divinity from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and a master’s in education in counseling psychology from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Leach and her husband, the Rev. Shannon Leach, formerly rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Midvale, Utah, and their sons, Andrew and Thomas, live in the chaplain’s residence, Procter House, near the Princeton campus. The Rev. Shannon Leach offered the sermon at Sunday’s ceremony. "Shannon left a supportive, growing parish in Salt Lake City for me to respond to this call," Chaplain Leach said. "He understands the unique ministry of a chaplain and I am thrilled to have him participate in the service."
The William Alexander Procter Foundation was established in 1937 to promote the spiritual and scholastic development of students at Princeton University and, at the discretion of the foundation’s trustees, students at other colleges and universities within the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey. In the 1950s the trustees extended the foundation’s support to the Episcopal Chaplaincy of Rutgers University in New Brunswick. The bishop of the Diocese of New Jersey serves as ex-officio president of foundation. Trustees are drawn from the faculty of Princeton and Rutgers and from Episcopal parishioners within the Diocese.
Leach succeeds the Rev. Frank C. Strasburger, who became president of medical education for South African blacks on June 1.