I was born and raised in Oakland, CA in the Episcopal Church. Intending to become a science teacher, I attended UC Davis and studied Environmental Biology, with a minor in American Studies. After working in science education for a couple years, I began to sense I had a call to ordained ministry. I found myself daydreaming about my volunteer work with youth and children at my home congregation in Oakland, rather than a future as a classroom teacher.   I began the journey towards ordination in the Diocese of California, and studied for my M. Div. at Virginia Theological Seminary. I graduated in 2014, and was ordained a priest in December of that year. Since then, I’ve served as a ministry resident at St. Paul’s in Alexandria, VA, and Chaplain at St. Paul’s Episcopal School in Oakland, CA. It would seem that St. Paul has become my patron saint!   I share my home with my husband, Andrew, our son Andrew Jr. (AJ), our newborn son Wesley and our dog Boudreaux.  In our spare time we can be found taking walks, playing boardgames, planning outdoor adventures, and keeping up with a toddler.  

 

I am blessed to  be a prunepicker – an old nickname for a native  Californian – thanks to my parents coming west from the  Ozarks just in time. California gave me a great education:  BA at California State Long Beach, MSLS at California State University at Fullerton, MDiv at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, from which I graduated in 1979.   At CDSP my deepest interest was, and continues to be in  medical ethics. St. Paul’s, Benicia, taught me nearly everything I ever needed to know about being rector with a  congregation; except that you all didn’t teach me how  unique you are. I had to learn that after parting from you, and working with other congregations as rector and interim

pastor, in Northern California and Los  Angeles.  Gene Ekenstam and I married in 2011, both of us retired, and we chose Benicia as our home and St. Paul’s as our church home. Felix the Cat rules our household and kindly allows us  to pay bills and buy kitty food. Currently I am on loan from St. Paul’s and can usually be found on Sundays at St. Luke’s in Calistoga; I love that Pastor  Jeanne lets me do some Wednesday services and we get to St.Paul’s on Sundays as often as we can.

 

 

A Native Californian!  I attended undergraduate and graduate schools in California and practiced law from 1978 through 1989.  In 1982, in response to the HIV/AIDs crisis, I began doing estate planning as part of the San Francisco Bar Association’s pro bono program for people with HIV/AIDs.  In the midst of that, I felt called to the priesthood.   I graduated with distinction from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in 1991 and was ordained to the priesthood in San Francisco (Diocese of California) in 1992.  I have served in a variety of parish settings, including as Pastoral Associate at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, where I was kept very busy doing marriage counseling and weddings; funerals and grief support; Lay Eucharistic Ministry support; AIDs/HIV support; liturgy; and Spiritual Direction.  I moved to Benicia from Berkeley in 1999, but continued to serve in the Diocese of California, most recently as the Vicar at Holy Trinity/La Santimisa Trinidad in Richmond.   During that time I also did legal work as the Fair Hearing and Mediation Specialist at the Regional Center of the East Bay which provides services and support to people with developmental disabilities.  Now that I am “retired”, my joy comes from traveling, gardening, reading, continuing education and Celtic Christian Spirituality.  I continue to do Spiritual Direction.   I am delighted to be at St. Paul’s.

 

I was born in Atlanta, Georgia and educated at Duke University (AB and PhD) and The General Theological Seminary in New York City (MDiv). After ordination in 1977, I spent nine years in parish ministry in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina before coming to California in 1985 to join the faculty of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. Since 2002 I have been serving as Dean and Professor of Christian Spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union, an ecumenical and interreligious consortium of theological schools in Berkeley. My special research interest is in medieval spirituality, but as a lover of church history in all times and places I am delighted to be at St. Paul’s with its rich tradition of worship and missionary service in the heart of Benicia.

 I have been attending St. Paul’s Benicia since shortly after we moved to Vallejo about 20 years ago. I was drawn to not only the beauty of the building but also the friendliness and welcome of the people. I became involved in Parish Health Ministries and eventually became a Stephen Ministries leader.