Greetings friends!

My name is Anna Carmichael and I am excited to join you in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin as your new Canon to the Ordinary!

I am originally from North Carolina, where I grew up in a small, farming community. When I was in middle school, my parents, sister and I moved to the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia. However, I spent my college years in North Carolina and attended graduate school in Virginia.

I moved to San Marcos, Texas, after graduating with a MS in Community and College Counseling, and worked at what is now Texas State University in San Marcos (previously Southwest Texas State University) in the Student Affairs Division working with first generation college students and freshmen.

After a few years in Texas, I accepted a position at Virginia Tech, again in Student Affairs and Housing, working with college students in special programs. It was during my time at Virginia Tech that I was encouraged to consider the priesthood. However, the academic in me won out. I moved to Costa Mesa, California to attend Vanguard University and got a Master's in Theological Studies...but God had not given up on me. During those years at Vanguard, I was blessed with the mentorship of The Rev. Dr. Barbara Stewart, then Rector of St. John's in Costa Mesa. With her support and guidance, and the willingness of Bp. Neff Powell (Southwestern Virginia) and Bp. Jon Bruno (Los Angeles), I was able to begin discernment to the priesthood. I originally started the process under the canons of Southwestern Virginia, but my acceptance to seminary at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California, solidified for me that returning to the east coast was not in the near future. Bp. Powell was gracious enough to release me from the diocese, and Bp. Bruno received me warmly into the Diocese of Los Angeles, where I completed my Candidacy for Ordination, and was ordained transitional deacon, and then priest.

My first call out of seminary was to St. Margaret's Episcopal Church and School in San Juan Capistrano, California. There I served as an Associate Priest and taught classes in the high school in the areas of Old Testament, Philosophy and Ethics, and Mythology. My last year at St. Margaret's I also served as Chair of the Religion and Philosophy department.

Since 2010, I have been serving as Rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Hood River, Oregon. My husband, Matt, is an Oregon native and we were happy to be reunited with his family after 7 years in California. St. Mark's has been a wonderfully supportive community as I continued to learn about my role in the larger community and the diocese. For the six years I have been at St. Mark's, I have served on Diocesan Council and Standing Committee, I served on the Futures Committee as our diocese moved from a vision of scarcity to abundance as we redefined what it means to be vital, I have been Chair of the Hood River Warming Shelter (now Hood River Shelter Services) and the coordinator for the Emergency Voucher Program. Since 2011, I have been working on my PhD in the Religion and Philosophy, with a specialization in Women's Spirituality through California Institute of Integral Studies. It is my hope to begin writing my dissertation in the fall of 2017.

Matt and I celebrated eight years of marriage in July. We have two amazing cats-Ted and Georgia-who are our "fur children". Matt has recently completed his Master's Degree in History, which is in addition to his degree in Library and Information Science. He is hopeful to enter into the library system or an academic library when we move to the diocese. We are so excited to be starting this new chapter in our lives with the good people of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin.

May we all be blessed as we continue to discover who we are Called to Be...

 

Peace,

Anna+