The Rev. Dr. J. Brent Bates

Fr. Bates has been rector of Grace Church since March 2011, coming most recently from Calvary Church in Summit, NJ, where he was Assistant and then Interim Rector.  He has also lived in New York City, Princeton, Changsha (capital of Hunan Province, China), Arkansas, and is a native of Texas.  

He completed his Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies at Drew University in 2008, writing on changing twentieth-century attitudes concerning death in the United States and their effects on Christian burial rituals.  He holds an M.Div. from The Graduate School of Theology at Abilene Christian University (Abilene, TX) and a B.A. in Biblical Languages from Harding University (Searcy, AR).  

He is married to Dr. J. "Jen" Jeanine Thweatt-Bates who studied the relationship between science and religion at Princeton Seminary, is currently finishing her book entitled Cyborg Selves about technology and theological anthropology, and is “theologian at large” as an Instructor for the Science for Ministry Institute at Princeton Seminary and Adjunct Instructor at New Brunswick Seminary.  

They have two wonderful daughters, Clare and Zadie.