Paul-Gordon Chandler is the Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Wyoming. He grew up in Senegal, West Africa, and has lived and worked extensively around the world in leadership roles within faith-based publishing, the arts, relief and development and The Episcopal Church. An author, art curator, peacemaker, social entrepreneur and an authority on the Middle East and Africa, his previous roles have included serving as both a non-profit executive and US Episcopal priest.
Paul-Gordon is passionate about using the arts to further our global quest for a more harmonious future, both with each other and with the earth. He has authored four non-fiction books in the fields of spirituality, interreligious peacebuilding and the Middle East.
In 2020, he was awarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation, the highest international award for outstanding service in the work of reconciliation and interfaith dialogue within the Anglican Communion.
Work History
Paul-Gordon Chandler is the Bishop of the Episcopal Church of Wyoming, based in Casper, Wyoming. Prior to living in Wyoming he was in Doha, Qatar, serving as the Rector of The Anglican Church in Qatar (The Church of the Epiphany & The Anglican Centre), a spiritual home for more than 85 congregations and groups in Qatar and includes approximately 17,000-22,000 worshippers from 65 countries every weekend. Before that he was the Founder and President of CARAVAN, an international non-profit/NGO focused on using the arts to heal our world and to creatively foster peace, harmony, wholeness and health in all its forms. Previously, Paul-Gordon served for ten years (2003-2013) as the Rector of St. John Church-Maadi in Cairo, Egypt, an international English-speaking Episcopal church of over 40 nationalities that welcomed people from many faith traditions, primarily from the diplomatic, academic, NGO and business communities.
Prior to his time in Cairo, he served as the President/CEO of Partners, an international ecumenical humanitarian non-profit that exists to assist local faith-based non-governmental organizations in over 70 countries in Africa, Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia. His former role was as the U.S. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IBS Publishing, a large ecumenical international publishing and linguistics non-profit that has published the Scriptures in thousands of languages worldwide.
Before that, from 1995-1997, he worked in London, England as the Director of SPCK Worldwide, an historic international publishing and literary grant-making organization of the Church of England, involved in publishing and communications in the U.K. and throughout the developing world. Prior to SPCK, from 1993-1995 he served in Tunisia, North Africa, as the Rector of the historic St. George’s Anglican Church in Tunis/Carthage, and Director of the Center for East-West Understanding, as well as Chaplain to the British Embassy. Before working in Tunisia, North Africa, he was the Director of International Programs for IBS Publishing, directing translation, publishing and distribution projects throughout the world, in over 100 countries.
Background
Paul-Gordon, a US citizen, spent the first eighteen years of his life in French-speaking West Africa, in Senegal. He studied at Wheaton College in the USA, at Chichester Theological Seminary (Church of England institution) in West Sussex, England and at the Alliance Française in Paris, France.
He is a direct descendant of Samuel Jordan, the early English settler and Ancient Planter of Jamestown. Paul-Gordon is also of Irish (Celtic) descent.