Canon Samuel Wells, Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, North Carolina USA, is to be the next Vicar of St-Martin-in-the-Fields.
He succeeds Nicholas Holtam who is now Bishop of Salisbury.
The university chapel attracts a Sunday congregation of around 900 and is known for its good preaching, music and liturgy.
Canon Wells, who has been in America for six years, will be insituted on Monday 2 July.