Thomas H. Troeger is J. Edward and Ruth Cox Lantz Professor of Christian Communication at Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School.

Professor Troeger has written more than fifteen books in the fields of preaching, poetry, hymnody and worship and is a frequent contributor to journals dedicated to these topics.

His most recent books include So that All Might Know: Preaching that Engages the Whole Congregation, Preaching and Worship, Preaching While the Church Is Under Reconstruction, and Above the Moon Earth Rises: Hymn Texts, Anthems and Poems for a New Creation.

Prof. Troeger is also a flutist and a poet whose work appears in the hymnals of most denominations and is frequently set as choral anthems. For three years Prof. Troeger hosted the Season of Worship broadcast for Cokesbury, and he has led conferences and lectureships in worship and preaching throughout North America, as well as in Denmark, Holland, Australia, Japan, and Africa.  Ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1970 and in the Episcopal Church in 1999, he is dually aligned with both traditions.  He is a former president of the Academy of Homiletics and currently serves on the board of Societas Homiletica (the international guild of scholars in homiletics.)

In response to the appointment, Prof. Troeger says, “All my life, I have attended churches where fine organists have helped to lead the congregation into prayer and a livelier sense of the Spirit through their musical artistry and the wonder of all the varied sounds coming from pipes of metal and wood.  Also, I remember the organist of my home church when I was growing up in Cooperstown, NY.   Not only did I relish his playing of preludes, hymns, anthems, service music and postludes, but I also am thankful for how he encouraged my serious study of the flute, and often invited me to play in services in which he accompanied me at the organ as I played the music of Bach, Handel, Gluck, Gounod, and others.   And later in my professional life, it was organists who worked so creatively with me in planning sermons and services built around major works for organ and choir.    All of this would have been impossible without them.   Looking back over all of that music, I can see now that organists have been a major influence in my spiritual formation: the beauty of their playing has given me an ever deepening and expanding vision of the beauty of God.   Thus, I am praying that my being chaplain to the AGO may be a way of my repaying and thanking the great company of organists, as well as a way of encouraging them in their inspiring ministry and art.” 

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