Thank you for considering me to serve on the Vestry. Though Trish, Elias, and I are quite new to the shared life of St. James The Less, my connections go back a half century to 1970 when I was baptized at the parish by The Rev. Hill Riddle. My parents lived in Ashland at the time and briefly made the parish their church home. They moved away shortly after.

I attended Patrick Henry High School (Conde Hopkins was one of my teachers) and the University of Richmond, where I received my BA in Religion, met Rock and Stephanie, and spent an inordinate amount of time in the choir room. I found Christ in the choir loft of the University Chapel through a Baptist lens. I would attend Baptist Theological Seminary (Rock’s+ alma mater) at Richmond for one year. I lived at Richmond Hill for four years. During that time, I served as a soloist at First Presbyterian and Church of the Holy Comforter.

Eventually, I moved to Chicago where I met my wife, Patricia Austin. We attended North Shore Baptist Church. I attended seminary at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (the Episcopal seminary in the Midwest), and was later ordained in the American Baptist Churches, USA. After planting an “emergent” church and serving a more traditional congregation as pastor, we moved to Berkeley, CA so that I could pursue a PhD in Liturgy and Ethnomusicology at The Graduate Theological Union/University of California. In 2015, I was confirmed in the Episcopal Church, a return to my denominational home, and we attended All Souls Parish where I served as a musician. I also taught homiletics at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, the Episcopal seminary in the Bay Area.

We moved back to Virginia from Berkeley, California in 2020 as the COVID epidemic was starting. That first year, like so many, we kept to ourselves. In 2021, we eventually found our way to St. James The Less through the Bluegrass Mass and have been enjoying getting to know everyone.

Presently, I work as a hospice chaplain with Bon Secours/Mercy Health. Trish, Elias, and I live in the Bellevue neighborhood.