Category: Rector Search

As was announced in church on October 25th, we have called a new rector, the Reverend Rodney Roehner.

Father Rodney comes to us from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in New Smyrna Beach, FL, where he has been rector for 5 years. Prior to that he was the Associate Rector and school chaplain at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in New Orleans, LA. He brings with him significant experience, accomplishment, spirituality, ability, and enthusiasm. Father Rodney was born and raised in Montgomery County, graduating from Methacton High School and Villanova University. He attended seminary at Nashotah House Seminary in Wisconsin, where he earned a Masters of Theological Studies with a concentration in Anglican Studies. Father Rodney is married to Carolina, and together they have two children, twin 11-year old girls, Sophia and Alexa. We are very excited to have Father Rodney and his family join us in December, and we expect his first Sunday with us will be December 20th.

The November 2020 issue of The Oracle contains more information on Father Rodney and his family.

See here for opportunities to welcome Father Rodney and his family!

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In case you missed it, Tim Walsh and Karen Sawyer (Search Committee co-chairs) delivered some exciting news during this past Sunday’s services.

(Spoiler alert: We’ve called our next rector!)

Below is a video of Tim’s announcement during the 9:30 a.m. service.

Watch for details!

As of September 25th, St. Matthew’s has been blessed with many responses to our posting for a new full-time rector. The Search Committee has been very busy meeting with the candidates to discern our potential future together. Each candidate provides their own unique set of skills and talents and we learn something from each and every interview that helps us on our path to finding our new rector.

It has been an exciting, and busy time since the posting went live in May. We are receiving some excellent responses and are witnessing the breadth of experiences and skill sets available to us. This is a true blessing to us and a sign of the strength of St. Matthew’s Church. Every candidate has commented about the strong health of our congregation. They also remarked that we are a very desirable destination for any clergy, due to our active congregation, fiscally responsible management and beautiful campus.

We are pleased to announce that we are fast on our way to identifying our finalists. We have completed several second interviews and an on-site interview at St. Matthew’s this month. If mutual discernment with our finalists continues as planned, we would expect to issue a call to our new rector in the near future. We have much to be proud of at St. Matthew’s and our new Rector will help us achieve our goals and dreams that we established in our parish profile.

Faithfully,
RECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE

Jon Clark
Trent Coombs
Connie Dee
Antonia Greene-Edwards
Gabrielle Pascuzzi
Karen Sawyer (co-chair)
Manny Sevilla
Roger Sumner
Tim Walsh (co-chair)
Nancy Williams

As of August 18th, St. Matthew’s has been blessed with many responses to our posting for a new full-time rector. All of the candidates are in various stages of discernment, with the Search Committee meeting multiple times per week to keep the process moving for each Candidate. Each Candidate provides us with a cover letter, a resume, and an OTM Profile from the Diocese which details his/her religious history, after which the Search Committee follows an identical set of steps.

• Review of all of the candidate’s materials, and then meet as a committee to discuss content and determine any follow up written questions we have.
• Review the written responses, and determine if the candidate moves on to the next step: Zoom Interview
• The Search Committee divided into two teams, each team responsible for conducting the Zoom Interview with specific Candidates. The Interviews are recorded, with the Candidates permission, so that the rest of the Search Committee can view if unable to attend in person.
• The Search Committee reaches a consensus on whether to continue with each Candidate, and if so, schedules a second Zoom Interview to ask any outstanding questions.

It has been an exciting, and busy, time since the posting went live in May. The original position posting expires on August 28, but we are going to extend the application window for another month to allow more candidates to apply while we continue to screen and interview the current applicants. We are receiving some excellent responses and are witnessing the breadth of experiences and skill sets available to us.

(Added August 27th) We have completed many Zoom interviews so far and we have recently started on Round 2 of interviews with select candidates!

It is very encouraging. More news to come!

Faithfully,
RECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE

Jon Clark
Trent Coombs
Connie Dee
Antonia Greene-Edwards
Gabrielle Pascuzzi
Karen Sawyer (co-chair)
Manny Sevilla
Roger Sumner
Tim Walsh (co-chair)
Nancy Williams

We have received a few more applications this week.

We are in the process of scheduling some initial Zoom calls with a couple candidates in order to start distilling our list. Still a long road ahead in the discernment process.

Rev. Canon Arlette D. Benoit Joseph, the Canon of Transition Ministry for the Diocese of Pennsylvania, expects more candidates to apply in mid August.

Please keep the Search Committee and our applicants in your prayers.

Yours in Christ,
RECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE

Tim Walsh
Karen Sawyer

The Search Committee leads had a very productive kickoff meeting with Rev. Canon Arlette D. Benoit Joseph, the Canon of Transition Ministry for the Diocese of Pennsylvania, and we continue to work weekly with Bud Holland, our rector search consultant.

Arlette mentioned that application flow will probably be a little slow until we get closer to our end of application receiving window on August 26th. This is due to COVID-19 and summer vacations.

We have received a couple applicants thus far and will start reviewing their materials and generating follow up questions and scheduling interviews as appropriate.

The search process is confidential so we will not be sharing candidate information and backgrounds, but we will continue to post regular updates on the progress.

Please keep the Search Committee and our applicants in your prayers.

Yours in Christ,
RECTOR SEARCH COMMITTEE

Tim Walsh
Karen Sawyer

The Profile Committee and Vestry are pleased to report that the Parish Profile was approved by the Bishop’s office on June 18th and the Search Committee is now accepting applications for the rector position at Saint Matthew’s, Maple Glen!

The Parish Profile is available online here.

Yours in Christ,
THE PARISH PROFILE COMMITTEE

Joe Buesgen
Pam Dunlap
Jane Baker
Sheryl Barbin
Katie Brown
Marie Clark
Jeanne Garrison
Jim Garrison
John McLaughlin
Kevin Randall

The Profile Committee is pleased to report that the Parish Profile was approved by the Vestry on June 9th and has now been submitted to the Bishop’s office for approval. It will be published on our website as soon as Bishop Gutierrez has had the opportunity to review it. We are eager for you to see it!

Yours in Christ,
THE PARISH PROFILE COMMITTEE

Joe Buesgen
Pam Dunlap
Jane Baker
Sheryl Barbin
Katie Brown
Marie Clark
Jeanne Garrison
Jim Garrison
John McLaughlin
Kevin Randall

On Monday, February 10th, we concluded the focus group sessions which started in mid-January. Approximately 104 people participated in the sessions. The Profile Committee then met to work on codifying the responses into a usable format. This report was then used to help formulate the structure of the Parish Profile, and identify key elements on which additional focus/attention was required. The Focus Group report was also provided to the Search Committee in late February, and was discussed with the Vestry in March.

In mid-February, we also engaged the services of Holy Cow! Consulting to help us formulate and execute a survey to further explore what was discussed in the focus group sessions. With the survey, the Profile Committee also hoped to engage parishioners who did not participate in the focus group process. We utilized Holy Cow’s Church Assessment Tool (CAT), an online survey designed to gauge the strength, vitality, and trends in a church. The survey ran through March 22nd, and collected information on a wide variety of topics from 125 parishioners. On March 31st, a group representing the clergy and staff, the Vestry, the Profile Committee and the Search Committee met with Holy Cow! to review the results. Results from the survey were incorporated into the final Parish Profile. The Vestry and the Search Committee were also provided with the results in the hope that they will be able to make use of them in their work as well.

Throughout late February and early March, the Profile Committee was actively working on three documents: the Parish Profile, the OTM (Office for Transition Ministry) Profile, and the TMC Questionnaire. In late March and April, our in-person writing and editing sessions were replaced by meetings via Zoom due to COVID-19 restrictions. In April, we also had professional photographs of the church taken by Tim Schultz of Bright House Creative Partners.

We have now completed the OTM Profile and TMC Questionnaire, both of which have been reviewed and tentatively approved by the Vestry. At the Vestry meeting on April 21st, we provided the Vestry with a draft copy of the text of the Parish Profile for their initial review. 

The Profile Committee is now in the final phases of production of the Parish Profile, and we will have that submitted for Vestry approval on or prior to their meeting in May. After we receive Vestry approval, the Profile (along with the OTM Profile and TMC Questionnaire) will be sent to the Bishop for his approval. Once we have that, we’ll publicly publish the Profile and the Search Committee will begin collecting resumes of those individuals wishing to be considered for the Rector position here at St. Matthew’s.

Yours in Christ,
THE PARISH PROFILE COMMITTEE

Joe Buesgen
Pam Dunlap
Jane Baker
Sheryl Barbin
Katie Brown
Marie Clark
Jeanne Garrison
Jim Garrison
John McLaughlin
Kevin Randall