FOCUS’s roots go back to the 1960’s. Independent schools then were feeling the impact of the secular revolution. Many of the religion programs that had been founded to express the schools’ Judeo-Christian heritage were called into question. At that time Peter Moore, our founder, drew together a group of graduates to strategize on how an age-old faith could be made new in the eyes and minds of the rising generation.

From simple beginnings the program grew as friends, faculty, parents and school heads recognized the need for an alternative to top-down religious programs that had lost their effectiveness. Peter Moore, a graduate of St. Mark’s, Yale and Oxford, gathered a team of visionaries and over the next 25 years developed a program that touched thousands in leading schools from the Northeast down the Atlantic seaboard.

In 1985 Peter passed on the ministry to a younger generation, and successive Directors (Roger Dewey, Woody Bowman, Simon Barnes, Terry Cook) developed FOCUS into a sizeable force of gifted and dedicated communicators. With an administrative office just down the road from the University of Virginia and a summer center on Martha’s Vineyard, the work prospered as donors saw the crucial importance of the work of FOCUS.

In 2005 Peter Moore re-joined the ministry in a time of transition and, with the support of his wife Sandra, once again headed the organization he founded many years ago. In the spring of 2008 Peter passed the baton to former Fairfield/Westchester Area Director Daniel Walker. Dan brings 12 years of FOCUS staff experience to his new appointment of Executive Director and involvement as a student and volunteer.

Click Play to watch a movie highlighting the Study Center and FOCUS