Welcoming The Rev. Karen Safstrom

It is my great privilege to announce to all of you that I have asked the Rev. Karen Safstrom to join the staff at St. Francis as our next Associate Rector, starting May 1st. Karen's first preaching at St. Francis will be on the weekend of May 12/13.

Karen grew up in Rutland and worshipped at Zion Lutheran Church in Worcester. She is a graduate of Wachusett Regional High School and Northeastern University, where she studied pharmacology. After sensing a call to ordained ministry, she attended the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, where she received her M.Div. degree. Since being ordained, she has served as pastor to Lutheran congregations in Lynn and Wilbraham.

So yes, Pastor Karen is a Lutheran! Since 2003, Episcopalians and Lutherans have shared a relationship of full communion with each other. While we remain separate denominations, Lutheran pastors can serve fully in Episcopal congregations and vice versa. In fact, there are two Lutheran pastors currently serving as rectors of parishes in our diocese. And the Rev. Anne Ryder (an Episcopal priest) serves both Christ Church Episcopal and Trinity Lutheran Church in Sheffield. While we did not go out looking for a Lutheran, early on the Search Committee (with input from the parish) agreed that we were willing to increase the applicant pool by considering a Lutheran if we felt that person brought the best configuration of gifts to us. In Karen we felt we found that person.

And yes, Pastor Karen is bi-vocational. Her work life at St. Francis, a half-time position, will be balanced by her half-time position as a pharmacist in Rutland. This will be a new experience for her and for us. Over the past fourteen years St. Francis has had four different half-time Associate Rectors. The Rev. Mark Hatch worked part-time when his children were little. The Rev. Darrell Huddleston worked part-time after retiring from full-time ministry. The Rev. Jill Williams was half-time with us and half-time with the Diocese. And so now the Rev. Karen Safstrom will be half-time at St. Francis and half-time as a pharmacist.

Karen is committed to this vision for ministry, with a foot firmly planted in each world. The Search Committee felt that both the fact that Karen is a Lutheran and that she lives and works in the so-called "secular" world brings a unique and exciting perspective to us. One of the challenges for us will be that Karen will have weekend duties at the pharmacy twice a month. Her schedule and duties during the week at St. Francis are still being worked out, but will be pretty set once we negotiate the details. As with our previous Associates, Karen will preach about once a month on average, slightly more in the summer months. She will also preside at the Eucharist at least once a month and be involved with the Wednesday night healing service. She will not be worshipping with us every weekend however, which will represent a change from what we have been accustomed to.

As with any staff change there will be some adjustments-some that we enter into aware of and others that will no doubt come as surprises. But I have to share with you all how very excited I am personally about the particular gifts and passion for ministry that Karen brings to us, and the Search Committee shares that excitement with me. I want to thank them all for their faithful and diligent work: Cynthia McIntyre (Chair), Brion Keagle, Jane Howell, Greg McGurin, Elizabeth Korandanis, Joe Reynolds, and Julie Mankowsky. Their recommendation to me was an enthusiastic and unanimous endorsement to call Karen, an endorsement with which I wholehearted concurred. I know you will join me in welcoming her into our midst.

Peace in Christ,

Rich