The Reverend Christopher Carlisle has been the Episcopal Chaplain at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst for over twenty years. He received his BA from Columbia University and Divinity degrees from Harvard and Yale. He came to the University after two years in a parish, and has seen dramatic changes in his ministry reflecting the dramatic changes of the surrounding culture. Moving from a traditional denominational ministry focused primarily on worship and pastoral care, Carlisle has undertaken initiatives intent on engaging and drawing from secular culture, seeking the critical relevance of the Christian faith in all facets of daily life. The God and Science Project, classes he teaches in the undergraduate honors college, and work in the arts have prepared him to embark on an exciting new phase of ministry at the Ark.

Having just completed the new sanctuary project which was designed for these experiences, Carlisle had expanded and renovated the existing space to accommodate the experimental nature of the Ark. Seeing it as a laboratory for the church, he hopes it will serve as "a home away from home" for students, as well as a vital center for the arts and academic learning for students, faculty, and people from the community in search of unusual theological connections in their lives. Carlisle has spoken often to groups about the future of the institutional church, but remarks, "Just as in the time of Jesus, the heart of any Judeo-Christian community lies not in clergy or institutional doctrine, but in the Godly mutuality that comes sharing in one another's gifts."