Berkeley Divinity School at Yale looked overseas to find its new dean. The Rev. Canon Joseph Harp Britton, who has been involved in ministry in Paris for the past seven years, was named to the position, effective July 1.

Canon Britton, 43, is the founding director of the European Institute of Christian Studies in Paris. From 1996 to 2002 he was the canon missioner of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe and was based in Paris.

“Through its affiliation with Yale Divinity School, Berkeley offers an extraordinary opportunity for the formation of new clergy with both an intellectual and spiritual depth,” Canon Britton said. “Berkeley students have the possibility to become grounded in the remarkable diversity of the Christian experience, as well as in the particular ethos of the Anglican tradition.”

A native of Fort Collins, Colo., Canon Britton graduated from Harvard University and the General Theological Seminary and received a Th.D. from the Institute Catholique de Paris. Following ordination in 1989, he assisted at St. Michael’s Church, New York City, and St. Paul’s, Dedham, Mass., then was rector at All Souls, Berkeley, Calif., from 1993 to 1996.

He is an Episcopal Church Foundation Fellow and a member of the Society of Christian Ethics and the American Academy of Religion. He also was a tutor for the East Anglian Ministerial Training Course in Cambridge, England, and a thesis director for Columbia University programs in Paris.

At Berkeley he succeeds R. William Franklin as dean and the Rt. Rev. Frederick H. Borsch who was interim dean. He also will serve as associate dean of Yale Divinity School.