The Rev. Nathan E. Kirkpatrick

Denomination: The Episcopal Church (TEC)
Organization: Saison Consulting

Principal Consultant with Saison Consulting in Durham, NC

Nathan Kirkpatrick was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, but grew up in the Appalachian Mountains in the university town of Boone, North Carolina.

Nathan went to Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he spent a lot of time studying two subjects that his mother warned him that you shouldn’t talk about in polite company – religion and politics. He read and traveled extensively learning how religion, particularly Christianity, contributes both to violence and to peace around the world. Before his junior year, Nathan spent his summer studying at the International Court of Justice during the Bosnian war crimes trials, an experience which reminded him that, if the world is ever to know peace, it will only find it in Christ and Christ’s Church.

From Wake Forest, Nathan went to Duke Divinity School. While there, he fell in love with Christian ethics and spirituality and continues to read in those fields. Upon graduation, he returned to western North Carolina and served as a pastor of two churches in a small town.

Since 2005, Nathan has worked at Duke Divinity School in the area of clergy continuing education and congregational leader development. As part of his work, he has facilitated retreats for clergy, designed educational programs (including the Institute of Preaching, an initiative to enhance the quality of preaching in two annual conferences), consulted with denominational, judicatory and institutional leaders around the country, and worked with seminary leaders in West Africa.

Since 2014, Nathan’s primary work has been to direct Alban at Duke Divinity, an initiative that endeavors to steward and extend the legacy of the former Alban Institute by resourcing a global network of congregational leaders. Alban’s work is at the intersection of robust theological reflection and wise ministerial practice. In the last five years, Rowman & Littlefield publishers have published 34 new Alban books with 5 more set to be published in 2019.

He has preached or taught in churches around the United States and on three continents. He now serves as the priest associate at the Episcopal Church of the Advocate in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a mission of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina.

When not working, Nathan loves to travel to fun places, take pictures, cook good meals, run long distances, laugh with friends, and play in the dirt in his garden.