Mitchell — Dakota Wesleyan University announces that Rev. Dr. Anthony Purcell has joined the university as its new campus pastor. His installation is planned for Thursday, Aug. 24, at 11 a.m. in the Sherman Center. Purcell will be installed as part of the university’s opening convocation.

Purcell comes to DWU with an extensive background in ministry and teaching. Most recently, he served as the Senior Pastor at Lake Gibson United Methodist Church in Lakeland, Fla. In Lakeland over the past four years, he also served as a visiting assistant professor of religion at Florida Southern College, and as an adjunct instructor at the Emory University and Candler School of Theology. He previously served as the Minister of Youth and Young Adults for the Lithia Spring United Methodist Church in Georgia.

Anthony is a Provisional Elder of the United Methodist Church. He holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Emory University where he earned a fellowship with the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies, an M.A. in Religion from Yale Divinity School where he earned the Marvin H. Pope Prize in Biblical Hebrew and a B.A. in Christian Studies from Brewton-Parker College, earning the Award for Academic Excellence in Christian Studies. His studies and teaching have focused on the Old Testament, Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic, the New Testament, Hellenistic Greek, Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean Art History, World Religions and Religious Studies and Theory.

Purcell is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Bible Association and the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education.