Linnell succeeds the Rev. E.A. Tad de Bordenave III, founder of Anglican Frontier Ministries. The organization’s commitment and purpose is “planting churches among the 25 largest and least evangelized peoples of the world,” according to the announcement letter from board chair Nancy Knight and deBordenave.

Linnell left a position on the staff of Galilee Church in Virginia Beach to take on his new role. He is a graduate of Trinity School for Ministry where he earned an M.Div.

Raised in England, Linnell was converted as a university student at Cambridge University.  He worked for several years, 1985-1987, in China as a teacher and met his wife, Kim, another teacher working there. After they returned to the states, he earned a doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania in applied linguistics in 1997. The couple returned to Asia in 1997 and Linnell taught at the University of Tunghai, Taiwan until 2000. He was ordained in the diocese of Pittsburgh in 2003.

Julian and his wife, Kim, have four daughters.