LEWISBURG — Bucknell University Chaplain Ian B. Oliver has announced he has accepted an offer to become pastor of the University Church and senior associate university chaplain for Protestant Life at Yale University.

The Rev. Oliver, who has served at Bucknell for 12 years, will assume his new duties at Yale in July. Bucknell will develop a search committee for a new chaplain following discussions with those involved across campus in the important role that religious life plays at the University.

“Chaplain Oliver has provided Bucknell, our students, and our entire community dedicated service as our chaplain and as our Protestant minister. He has overseen remarkable growth in the depth, diversity and integration of the religious and spiritual life program at Bucknell,” President Brian C. Mitchell said. “We are sad to see him leave Bucknell, and know Yale will benefit tremendously from his leadership and spiritual guidance, just as Bucknell has.” Oliver played a key role in facilitating the hiring of Bucknell’s’ first full-time Jewish chaplain, establishing Bucknell’s first formal connection to the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, and the forming of the Muslim Students Association and many other new religious groups.

As pastor of the church in Rooke Chapel, Oliver worked with student leadership to form the Rooke Chapel Congregation and to develop it as a student church on campus. He also helped found the Bucknell Brigade service-learning partnership that assists with community projects in Nicaragua.

Over the past two years, Oliver helped lead Bucknell’s participation in the Teagle Foundation study, “On Secularity and Liberal Education,” which is exploring the effects of secularity on campus discussions about religion.

His new position as pastor and senior associate chaplain at Yale will combine the duties of serving as the pastor of the University Church, the oldest college church in the country, with the duties of coordinating Yale’s many active Protestant campus ministries.