Berkeley Divinity School, in association with St. George’s College, Jerusalem, the H. Boone and Violet M. Porter Foundation, and The Episcopal Church’s Office of Global Partnerships and Mission Personnel, has appointed John M. Hunt, M.Div. ’18, STM ’20 as Berkeley’s Porter Fellow in Jerusalem for 2021. 

The Fellowship was established at Berkeley with the support of the Porter Foundation to advance the global leadership of students and recent graduates by working at St. George’s, living in the interfaith context of Jerusalem, and volunteering at appropriate local agencies, including the Jerusalem Peacebuilders organization.  Hunt will follow Della Wager Wells, 2018-2019, and Stephanie Burette, 2019-2020.

A graduate of Princeton University, Hunt received a Master of Science from New York University and spent 15 years working in the investment banking and capital markets/structured finance groups at Merrill Lynch, CIBC, and Bear Stearns.  After 2008, John spent several years managing teams for the FDIC investigating financial fraud within failed banks. In 2015 John matriculated to Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, becoming an ordinand in the Diocese of Long Island in 2019.  Out of all the opportunities afforded to him by the Porter Fellowship, Hunt says, “I am particularly excited to see how living in the Holy Land informs my understanding of scripture, and how that newly informed understanding takes shape in terms of my work with St. George’s College and Cathedral, Jerusalem Peacebuilders, and finally on my ministry going forward.”

The dean of St. George’s College, the Very Rev. Richard Sewell, notes that “while, sadly, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, John will not be able to join the College team until January, he will bring a wealth of life experiences and a deep willingness to serve God in the richness of the Jerusalem context.”