Richard Curtis Chapple Jr. is the assistant professor of homiletics. An ordained elder in the AME Zion Church, he brings 27 years of ministry to the Seminary. He has served in the capacities of pastor, presiding elder, general conference delegate, delegate to the World Methodist Council, and church consultant. He currently serves as a member of the AME Zion Church’s Judicial Council. He serves the church beyond his own tradition as well. Considered the most ecumenically exposed preacher among the faculty, he preaches often in Baptist, United Methodist, Pentecostal, Reformed, COGIC, Church of God, and many other church contexts. He has preached abroad on a numerous occasions and enjoys an ongoing visiting professorship with Reformed Theological Seminary of Nigeria (Gboko).

He received his bachelor's from the University of Arkansas, his M.Div. with honors from Howard University the Divinity School (with study at Oxford University, Mansfield College), and his Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is a doctoral candidate at the University of Pittsburgh in the area of English and communication education (rhetoric).

Chapple is also a trained psychotherapist and pastoral counselor under the auspices of AAPC. His most recent publications are a chapter entitled “Africentrism and African-American Preaching” in The African-American Churches Response to Africentrism  (University 2004), an essay entitled “The Bible as a Primary Tool for Evangelistic Preaching” in The Journal of Religious Thought, and an essay entitled “The African American Church as a Rhetorical Community” in The AME Zion Quarterly Review.