Rector:

The Rev’d Dr Dennis B. A. Berk

The Rector of St Mary-on-the-Rock, Ellon, and St James the Less, Cruden Bay, was born in the United States. Growing up in Pennsylvania, he later went to Illinois where he graduated with a degree in psychology from Wheaton College. After university he moved to Canada where he took a degree in theology from Trinity College in Toronto. Ordained in the Anglican Church of Canada in 1990, he served his curacy in the Diocese of Ontario.

Returning to his natal land in the United States, he engaged in parish ministry in Pennsylvania whilst pursuing a doctorate at Lancaster Theological Seminary. In 2003 he was selected by the Episcopal Church in the USA for a three-year missionary appointment in Zambia, Africa.

He came to the UK in 2009 to join the Community of the Resurrection, an Anglican monastic community in West Yorkshire. Drawn to their life of prayer, he resided in their monastery until coming to Aberdeenshire in April 2018. With his entire childhood and teenage years having been in a rural region, he deliberately sought a pastoral charge in this picturesque Scottish shire. Naturalised as a British citizen in 2016, now he holds dual nationality. Having one foot planted in the UK and another in the USA, he straddles both cultures and enjoys each of them. But he is especially happy to be living in this beautiful part of Aberdeenshire amongst so many wonderful people.