Ray Ryland

Oklahoma native Father Ray Ryland is a former minister of the Episcopal church. In 1963, he was received with his wife Ruth and their five children into the Catholic Church. Twenty years later, he was ordained to the priesthood of the Catholic Church, with a dispensation from the rule of celibacy.Fr. Ryland earned his bachelor's degree from Phillips University in 1942. He also has studied at Harvard Divinity School; the Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he received his master's of divinity degree; Columbia University; Virginia Theological Seminary; University of the South; the University of San Francisco; and Marquette University, where he received a doctorate degree in religious studies. He also received a law degree from the law school at the University of San Diego, where he was a professor of theology for more than 20 years.Currently, Fr. Ryland is an adjunct professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and serves as chaplain of the Coming Home Network and of Catholics United for the Faith. He is a contributing editor of This Rock magazine and an assistant pastor at St. Peter's Church in Steubenville, Ohio.