Worship Plans

Scottish Liturgies in August

Hello St. Philip's!
Let me begin by saying how thrilled I am to be here as a priest on staff. St. Philip's was the parish in which my call to the ordained ministry was first kindled, and this parish supported me through the trials and tribulations of discernment and seminary. Now, more than a decade later, I am pleased to be returning to serve St. Phililp's as clergy.

I am not a native born Arizonan. I came out to the desert in 1979 to attend the University of Arizona as a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology. I began to attend services at St. Philip's in the mid-'80s off and on, best known as a Sunday morning face in the second soprano section of the choir. Gradually over the next 5-6 years (in-between field seasons in Mexico) I found myself getting more and more involved with the life of the parish, which culminated in me discerning a call to the ordained ministry. On graduation, I interned with St. Philip's for a short spell and then in 1993 moved to Cambridge, MA, to attend the Episcopal Divinity School. (There I met and was next-door neighbor to the Rev. Susan Anderson-Smith, and took church history classes with the Rev. Dr. John Hooker, who taught me how to point a collect and sing the Exsultet for the Easter Vigil.)

After graduating from EDS, I answered a call to St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Rochester, NY.  There I learned my trade as a curate and tended to the youth and families. This was the only time in my life where I truly felt as though I had eaten a sufficiency of pizza. From the snow-fields of western New York I migrated back to Massachusetts to serve as a priest in charge at the Church of Our Saviour in Somerset, MA, across the Taunton from Fall River (city where Lizzie Borden took her axe), and then later as rector of Trinity Parish in Weymouth, MA. In both parishes, I continued my work in family ministries, and at Trinity began to experiment with an evening services as an outreach mission to unchurched "seekers."

I am excited to be on staff to continue to work with family and seeker populations at St. Philip's. I come with a spouse, Laurie, and a household of cats, and over twenty boxes of books to unpack and organize in my office. Feel free to come by and say hello and shelve a few books!  It's good to be here.

Faithfully,
Clare+