 Working with the Standing Commission on Human Affairs, he helped the General Convention of 1994 to include in the church's canons sexual orientation in the non-discriminatory clauses for ordination.Educated at Princeton, Oxford and the General Theological Seminary, his Ph.D. degree is from the University of Birmingham in England.In addition to teaching posts in England, at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary and the General Theological Seminary, he was a dean, president, and professor of New Testament at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.