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Rector
The. Rev. Dr. Lydia Agnew Speller

Read the rector's blog:Things Seen and Unseen saintmarks.blogspot.com

Photo of the rector: The Rev. Dr. Lydia Agnew SpellerThe Rev. Dr. Lydia Agnew Speller has served as rector (an old English term for senior pastor) of Saint Mark's Church since 1993. After graduating from Bryn Mawr College with a double major in Latin and History of Religion, she got a D.Phil. in Theology from Oxford University in England. After teaching school and college for several years, she was ordained deacon in 1987 and priest in 1988. She's been married for over 30 years. She and John have twin children who graduated from college in 2008.Here's how she describes her theological outlook:

An old teacher of mine (Patrick Henry) wrote a book called The Ironic Christian's Companion. An Ironic Christian, as I understand it, is one who does not have all the answers, who is willing to live faithfully with uncertainty and ambiguity. I am one of those.

Around the time I was ordained priest, there was a profile in the New Yorker about the controversial bishop of Durham, David Jenkins. At his consecration, it reported, he said, "I face you as an ambiguous, compromised and questioning person entering upon an ambiguous office in the midst of a threatened and threatening world. I dare to do this and I even rejoice to do this because this is where God is to be found." I took it as an epigraph for my life as an ordained person. I believe that all modern people of faith live, in a way, if we are honest, with ambiguity, compromise and questions and that church should be a place where we can share our experience of feeling that way and discovering God, none the less, with us.

My theology and my spirituality are essentially incarnational - prayerfully looking for God in the midst of human experience, in my story and in the stories of those I encounter. I find myself challenged and excited by contemporary biblical scholars and the vision they offer of Jesus as the one who preaches that wherever healing is freely given and received and people gather at the table - without regard to barriers of race, gender, class, purity or religion -- the reign of God is to be found.



Deacon
The Rev. Marylen Stansbery

Vestry Officers




Senior Warden

Allen Porter

Junior Warden

Tarassa Steele

Treasurer

Susan Healey

Recording Treasurer

Elaine Mickley

Clerk

Barbara Macke


Other Staff & Ministry Leaders


Organist & Choirmaster

Robert S. Mullgardt

Parish Secretary:

Carol Eschbacher

Altar Guild Director
Kelly Lattanzi

Godly Play Teacher

Celeste Kocot

Trinity Lunch
Coordinators

Carey Tisdal and
Amiya Thompson

Finance

Sue Healey & Rita Diekemper

Parish Life Coordinator

Amanda Cashen

Landscaping

Rita Diekemper