John Ander Runkle BA, BArch, MDiv

With more than thirty years’ experience, John Runkle has worked with a wide variety of historic structures – from serving as a staff architect for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, to surveying archaeological sites of medieval Islamic settlements in the Sahara Desert, to practicing as the Principal Historical Architect in a leading historic preservation firm, to specializing in church and liturgical design in the Anglican tradition, his life’s work represents a devotion to the care and interpretation of architectural and cultural landmarks. From 2005 to 2010, John served as the Cathedral Conservator at Washington National Cathedral, where he was responsible for the care of the building fabric, as well as its fine art collections. Since 2011, the national Episcopal Church offices in New York retain him as the Consulting Project Manager for the reconstruction of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake.

A prolific writer, John’s book, Searching for Sacred Space: Essays on Architecture and Liturgical Design in the Episcopal Church is a collection of thought-provoking essays that focus on liturgical space and its proper support of common worship.  A popular speaker at lectures, conferences and retreats, he often teaches at Virginia Theological Seminary and Wesley Theological Seminary on the theology of sacred space and history of religious architecture.

In 1999, John received his Master in Divinity from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee; preceded in 1984 by a Bachelor of Architecture, with honors, from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and, in 1981, a Bachelor of Art, magna cum laude, from Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia.

To access John’s complete résumé, please click the link below:

2017 Resume