Dear Friends in Christ,

What a blessing it is to have been called to serve as your next rector of St. Peter’s! I am humbled, grateful, and carry with me so many feelings of joy and wonder that I will soon be joining you all as we serve, worship, and celebrate Jesus together in the community and the world!

I am so grateful for your vestry who shepherded the search process with grace and care. It is so evident that your vestry loves this church and most of all, you! They worked hard throughout this process, and I can say that I have felt cared for throughout.

A little bit about myself. I grew up in the Episcopal Church and did all the “things”. I was an acolyte, I acted in church pageants, was a member of the youth group, etc. Some of my fondest memories growing up involve church and the relationships I experienced there.

However, I did eventually fall away from the church and considered myself agnostic for a good portion of my life. Yet even in those years when I was separated from the church, in retrospect, I was never separated from God. I see that now as even back then I continued to explore my spiritual side.

Eventually, I felt called to return to the church and so I stopped by the Episcopal Church in town one Sunday and everything seemed to click. As soon as I walked into that building, I knew I was home. And, with the zeal of the newly converted, I dove right in. I became a youth leader, I served as a Lay Eucharistic Minister, a reader, and a Lay Preacher. I joined the vestry where I served as Treasurer. Still though, I felt called to do more. I ended up working for the diocese and still, I felt called to do even more. Which is when I began discerning for Holy Orders.

And now, well, serving as a priest has been nothing short of a dream come true. That I get to serve people in whatever way I can, that I lead others in the Eucharist, that I am able to go out into the world and just be present with so many people from so many different backgrounds has been one of the greatest blessings I have experienced or could even imagine. Most of all, I get to serve Christ day in and day out!

My wife Jenn and I will have been married twenty-six years in August after having been set up on a blind date by my brother. We have two children. Liam, aged 22, is living up in Boston having recently graduated from Suffolk University. Our daughter Victoria is 20 years-old and is a Junior at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC where she is majoring in Elementary Education.

Along with family and vocation, I also enjoy hiking, reading, and rooting for (and being disappointed by) the New York Mets.

I am so, so looking forward to joining you all on June 15!

Faithfully,

Matt