Fr. Dan Edwards has been priest at St. Francis since 1994. Before coming here, he served at Christ Church, Macon as curate for four years. He received his M. Div. (with honors) and his S.T.M. in Spiritual Direction from General Theological Seminary. He interned at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine and at Holy Apostles Church in New York City, where he served as pastoral counselor to the homeless at the City's largest soup kitchen. Before ordination, he practiced law for twelve years including a five year stint in legal aid representing migrant farm workers and Native Americans. He grew up in Texas, but has mostly gotten over it.

      In 2003, Fr. Dan was a Guthrie Scholar at Columbia Theological Seminary, studying contemporary theology. In 2002, he spent a semester studying at Harvard Divinity School as a Merrill Fellow, and was a Lilly Foundation Presenter on Celtic Spirituality at St. Gregory the Great, Athens. He serves as Dean of our Convocation and Ecumenical Officer of our Diocese and has a particular interest in interfaith dialogue. He has focused his ministry in the fields of spiritual guidance and pastoral counseling, holding certificates from the Shalem Institute, the Mercy Center's National Institute for Inner Healing, and the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. He has led spiritual retreats and workshops, taught spirituality classes, and served as spiritual director for both clergy and lay people in the Diocese.

      He has been active in community ministries from hands-on labor with Rebuilding Together (low-income housing rehabilitation) to serving on the boards of various organizations including the Center for Racial Harmony and Understanding, Loaves and Fishes Ministries (homelessness), Macon-Bibb Citizen Advocacy (handicapped persons) and Koinonia Partners (inter-racial farming community of the Cotton Patch Gospels). He has served on the Medical Center Ethics Committee and the Interdisplinary Review Boad of Coliseum HCA Hospital. Campus ministries have also been important to him. He has served in years past as the institutional chaplain at Wesleyan College and sponsor of Canterbury Club at Mercer.

      Fr. Dan is married to Linda Edwards, a law professor at Mercer. They have two adult daughters, Emilie, who now lives in North Carolina, and Katie, who is a student at Kennesaw State College. He enjoys reading good poetry and writing poetry of variable quality. He also reads novels, runs, lifts weights, and practices yoga and meditation. Drinking coffee with friends makes his day. His favorite religious writers are: Thomas Merton, David Stendahl-Rast, Tich Nhat Hahn, Pema Chodron, Rowan Williams, Meister Eckhart, Graham Greene, Flannery O'Connor, and George MacDonald.