Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

A parish community is a living, growing, changing thing.  In the coming months we’ll have a number of changes in personnel in our community, and I want to tell you about them.

As you know our Curate, Fr. Ashcroft, is leaving us this summer to join his family in northern Minnesota, where they begin a new chapter in their lives.  We’ve already begun to say our goodbyes to Andrew.  Normally we would have begun a search for a Curate as soon as this transition had been decided on, but I was reluctant to rush into a search with only a couple of months to find someone.  And it happened that I knew of a priest who might be available to come to work with us at Saint Mark’s for a short while, allowing us to take more time to find a longer-term replacement.  My old seminary professor, Dr. Bill Franklin, has just finished four years in Rome where he worked with his wife Carmela during her term as director of the American Academy in Rome.  He also served at the Anglican Center in Rome, and the Anglican parish of Saint Paul’s Within-the-Walls.  He has previously served as director of Christian Formation at Trinity Church, Copley Square, as Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and as Professor of Church History at the General Seminary, where I was his student assistant.  Bill is an extraordinarily gifted teacher and church leader.  He is involved in several searches for long-term positions that will not conclude for some time after his return to the States, and it seemed like a good fit for him to come work with us while he transitions back to life and ministry in America.

After consulting with the Vestry, I asked Bill to come here as Senior Associate Priest, and he has agreed to be with us for at least six months, and possibly a little longer.  Carmela is returning to her post on the faculty at Columbia University, so Bill will be in New York with her on Mondays and Tuesdays and we hope that she will often be here in Philadelphia on the weekends.  They are both marvelous people, whose friendship and guidance I have appreciated for more than fifteen years.  I am confident that you will discover this about them too, and my only regret is that we can only anticipate a short time with them here.  In the Fall I will begin a search for someone to join me in priestly ministry for a longer-term.

This Fall we will also welcome a Ministry Intern, Dr. Peter Kountz, who is preparing for ordination in a slightly unusual way, by what is known as “reading for Holy Orders”.  Peter is the head of the Charter High School of Architecture and Design here in Philadelphia.  He’s had a long career as an educator and has a deeply developed and well-informed faith.  Peter’s placement here is part of his formation for ordination, and I know he will learn a great deal here; I am also certain that he has much to teach us and I have no doubt that this will be a mutually beneficial arrangement.

As you know, our wonderful Assistant Organist, Joshua Stafford, has graduated from the Curtis Institute and will be leaving us in mid-summer to transition to New Haven, where he will take up graduate study in organ performance at Yale University.  In August we will be joined by Tom Sheehan as the new Assistant Organist.  Tom comes to us from Princeton where he has just graduated from Westminster Choir College and will now take up graduate studies there.  He has previously been organ scholar at Trinity Church, Princeton and organist for the Episcopal Chaplaincy at Princeton University.

More immediately, I am happy to report that the Vestry and I have found someone to provide book keeping and accounting services for us.  Mary Campbell will provide these professional services on a part-time basis.  Mary is a CPA who runs her own accounting firm here in Center City and I know she will be a help to us as we continue to increase the transparency and accuracy of our financial record-keeping and reporting.

Clearly we will have a lot of change going on this Fall.  I am excited about the new folks who I will be working with, and I hope you are too!

Faithfully,

SEAN MULLEN

Rector

High School students come to camp on the church grounds for a week during which time they 

• conduct community outreach projects
• work on the renovation of a building on the property
• run Vacation Bible School for neighborhood kids

Kids from the neighborhood, ages 6-12, are welcome to participate in Vacation Bible School, Jun 28 - July 2, from 9 am to 5 pm.  There is no cost for VBS participants.

Adult volunteers help support the campers.  Saint Mark's takes leadership in the following ways:

• manning registration, M-F
• organizing meals and other hospitality
• recruiting and organizing nurses
• supervising community outreach projects
• supervising construction
• organizing worship for VBS kids

It takes lots of volunteers to keep the camp running and a lot of work, but this is fruitful and transformation for kids' lives (and adults, too!)  Please be in touch with Fr. Mullen if you'd like to volunteer.

The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Pennsylvania has allowed Saint Mark's to adopt the Church of Saint James the Less as a mission of our parish.  Saint James the Less was vacated more than two years ago by its congregation following lengthy litigation with the diocese.  The parish had grown disaffected with the diocese and the Episcopal Church.

The work of restoring worship and ministry to this beautiful place in a demanding part of the city now falls to Saint Mark's and those partners we can gather to work with us.  The first important steps will involve prayer and discussion to discern what ministry God is calling us to, as well as efforts to reach out to the local community.

More news will be posted about our ministry at Saint James the Less as it takes shape.