cre:ate

Ian will be facilitating a conversation at cre:ate ‘09 about liturgy, Eucharist and the human quest for coherence. As part of the discussion Ian will also be integrating musings about the life of St Francis of Assisi and how this pre-modern saint can breathe life into the postmodern Church.

BIO

An ordained Anglican priest, spiritual director, author and songwriter, Ian Morgan Cron is the founding pastor of Trinity Church in Greenwich, Conn., a non-denominational faith community known for its commitment to social justice as well as to communicating the Christian story through the arts.

Cron is a native of Greenwich and a graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in English and Romance languages and also met his wife Anne. He earned a master’s in counseling at Denver Seminary and received a master in divinity from New York Theological Seminary. Ian is presently enrolled in a doctoral program at Fordham University (The Jesuit University of New York) focusing on contemplative spirituality.

After 13 years of ministry, Cron became uncomfortable with the evangelical church’s growing identification with conservative politics, its resistance to engaging in generative conversation with people of differing theological and social viewpoints, its movement away from classical spiritual practices and worship, and its often facile answers to life’s deepest questions.

At the height of his spiritual crisis, he retreated to a friend’s home on the island of Bermuda with a loaned copy of GK Chesterton’s, St. Francis of Assisi, a classic that would restore meaning and inspiration in his ministry. To Cron, St. Francis was a Christian worth emulating, a religious genius who transcended the labels of conservative, or liberal (or any other label for that matter).

To introduce others to St. Francis, whom Cron has billed the “consummate postmodern saint,” he authored Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim’s Tale (September 2007, NavPress). Part historical narrative, part fiction, Cron’s literary debut has received praise from a host of both Catholic and Protestant thinkers including Brian McLaren, Friar Richard Rohr, Tony Campolo, Makoto Fujimura, and Brennan Manning.

An accomplished songwriter in Nashville and New York City, he has two CDs of original work, “The Land of my Father’s,” produced by Grammy Award-nominated producer Rob Mathes and “Sacred Hunger,” produced by the Grammy Award-winning producer Phil Naish.

Cron is a spiritual director and retreat leader who particularly enjoys working with artists.

In his spare time he enjoys fly-fishing, running, traveling, and hiking in the mountains of Vermont. He resides in Old Greenwich with his wife and three children.