From Jacksonville International Airport, take I-95 south and immediately exit onto I-295 south. Follow I-295 around Jacksonville to Exit 3. Get off at Exit 3 and go south on US-17 (Park Avenue). After two miles you will come to Kingsley Avenue; turn left into the Grace Church complex. Click here for a map from Jacksonville International Airport to the Campus. Click here for a map of the Campus in Orange Park.

James R. Hart, D.W.S., is the President for the Institute for Worship Studies. In addition to his IWS position, he served as Director of Music and Arts Ministries for Grace Episcopal Church from 1993 to 2006. Among other duties Dr. Hart is responsible for on-campus arrangements for the Doctor of Worship Studies program, including student accommodations. Please contact him at the address and phone number below for information about housing arrangements, meals on campus, and other student matters.

A Message from the President:

The church in the beginning of the twenty-first century has demonstrated a significant need for servant leaders, pastors and musicians alike, who are willing to be used by the Lord as catalysts for worship renewal in their local congregations.  Essential to these emerging leaders is the understanding that renewal happens most effectively in the framework of ongoing community formation.  The Institute for Worship Studies has been uniquely established to develop such leaders and to help them connect their studies and their on-campus experiences to their own places of ministry.

As President, my primary responsibility is to care for and serve our students throughout the process of their IWS academic careers.  This task includes facilitating the creation of an environment which enables our students to acquire a practical education of the highest quality in the context of a real, vital local church congregation.  At IWS we seek to serve the students, faculty, and staff by engendering a strong communal ethos. This process of community development is energized and reinforced through worshiping, studying, eating, fellowshipping, and ministering together during our on-campus sessions and by our interactions during the year via the website message boards and e-mails.  Through the employment of an overall philosophy of servant-hood leadership, we want to help make the student's educational experience as satisfying and pleasant as possible so that the maximum benefit may be received from his or her studies, practicums, and fellowship with other students and faculty.  Our priority is to provide our students with the communal context in which they may have a most enriching, stimulating, practical and impacting academic experience.

May the Lord richly bless your endeavors at IWS.

Dr. James R. Hart
President