Reverend Israel D. Anchan, an ordained priest since 1982, first served as associate pastor of a congregation in Mumbai, and then Ambaranath, the largest metropolitan city in India. Being a pastor, he also served as the honorary principal and manager of the local high school for fifteen years. He completed five years of theological and general studies and earned his Bachelor of Theology in 1982 from Karnataka Theological College, India.

Reverend Anchan came to Chicago in 1999 for Advanced Theological Studies. He completed and received his Master of Sacred Theology in ‘Ecumenical Studies and World Religion’ at the Union Theological Seminary, New York in 2001. Since then, he has also received his Master of Theology in 2003 and his Doctor of Ministry in ‘Mission and Leadership’ in 2008, both from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

Fr. Anchan served as the Assistant at St. Edmunds Episcopal Church in Chicago from 2006 to 2009 and was the Rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Kankakee, Illinois from 2009 until he became the Rector at Christ the King in November, 2019.

Rev. Israel Anchan is very passionate about congregational development, preaching and teaching the gospel of Christ, reaching out to the neighborhood communities with the gospel message, and creating new programs for disadvantaged youth. He strongly believes that a priest is a servant of the gospel first and foremost, and exhibits this belief in all that he does.