When I asked him if he ‘d be doing another work, he smiled, took a deep breath and smiled and said “no emphatically…I have been blessed, I have never thought of doing anything else”. Before the tunnel drives far, just want to say a big thank you to Susan Hogan, she facilitated this–aworship tunnel meets aworship place all in US, all in Washington DC, all just by the White House. He is not a man known to be open to interviews, and yet he speaks every other sunday and frequently Presidents listen to him, not just presidents, but the president of presidents. He’s Cuban-American, a minority and the first to hold the post and position. He is the fourteenth Rector of the Church, began his tenure in 1995. His specialty is building inner city parishes through spiritual leadership, preaching, excellence in worship and liturgical music, stewardship and outreach that involves parish members in the community. He tells the tunnel that when he came “there were just a little above 900 and today they are 1200″. He teaches courses nationwide in parish building and stewardship and is a frequently requested commencement speaker. Before his time here, he served as Rector of Trinity Church in Wilmington, Delaware, and St. Paul’s Church in Paterson, New Jersey. St. Paul’s, an urban parish, grew during his tenure from 35 parishioners to several hundred. In 1985 St. Paul’s was named “Church of the Year” by the New Jersey Council of Churches, and in 1986 he was awarded the Bishop’s Outstanding Service Award in recognition of the “extraordinary contributions made to the life, quality, and the spirit of the church in this diocese.” From 1977 until 1980, he served as Assistant Rector at St. Peter’s Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. He then was Director of Refugee Resettlement for the Diocese of Maryland for two years. He began his spiritual journey when he was baptized into the Episcopal Church in Guantánamo, Cuba. In 1961 he came to the United States as part of the “Peter Pan” flights out of Cuba, joining thousands of children whose parents, at that time in history, feared for their future in Cuba. He was 12 years old when he arrived in the U.S., and was supported by the Episcopal Church in Miami. He attended the University of the South, graduating in 1971. He received a Masters in Divinity degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1977 and in 1999 was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of the South. He is a member of the Board of Regents at the University of the South and was a founding member of both the Washington Interfaith Network and the Wilmington [Delaware] Interfaith Network. In 2005 he offered the invocation at the inauguration of the President of the United States. He is married to Lu Stanton. They have two children, Emilia and Sofia. Lu is a professional writer, editor and consultant...........
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 08:40:27 +0000