Updates & Information
Comittee Chairs
Annouced
September 3, 2026
Good news! The Vestry has identified chairs for the following committees:
Prayer Team Chair: Nancy Gringrich, gingand@cox.net
Communications Team Chair: Katy Gilchrist, katy.gilchrist@gmail.com,
Profile Team Chair: Coleen Murphy, cmurphy@rwu.edu
Search Team Chair: Tom Bledsoe, Senior Warden, thomas_bledsoe@brown.edu
The committee chairs have been reaching out to the people who either volunteered for their committee or who were suggested by other parishioners. Strong teams are in place.
However! The Prayer committee can have as many members as are interested, so please feel free to contact Nancy (top of the list above) to volunteer if you haven’t already. Finding our next rector deserves a wealth of intercessions. See below for a description of the work of the prayer committee.
Upcoming Congregational Meetings
As we begin the search for the Twentieth Rector of S. Stephen’s Church, we are entering an important season of listening and discernment. On Sunday, September 13 and Sunday, October 4, The Rev’d Canon Dena Cleaver-Bartholomew from the Diocese will lead gatherings designed to help us reflect together and articulate our shared experience and vision for S. Stephen’s. Your participation in these parish-wide conversations is vitally important.
Parish History Event
Sunday, September 13
after Solemn Mass in the Great Hall
This event is designed to create a shared awareness of the church’s history from the congregation’s perspective. This information provides a foundation for the profile and discernment process. The meeting will last approximately two hours.
Lunch & Childcare are provided.
Congregational Conversation
Sunday, October 4
after Solemn Mass in the Great Hall
The Congregational Conversation provides an opportunity for members of the congregation to have direct input in the Vocation Hub Profile for S. Stephen’s. Your participation is vital for us to be able to create an accurate understanding of where we have been as a faith community, where we are, and how we are called to grow as God's people. The meeting will last approximately two hours.
Potluck. Childcare is provided.
Upcoming Rector Search Events
August 28, 2026
In only 2 weeks we’ll have our first parish wide meeting after Mass on Sunday, September 13, led by Canon Dena Cleaver-Bartholomew. Together we’ll look back at our history with prior rectors in this parish – what we loved, what we didn’t, and what’s important to us now. Canon Dena will help us tease out our topmost desired characteristics. Those wishes will be crafted into a “Parish Profile,” essentially a job description for potential Rector candidates, that will be finalized after the second meeting on October 4.
Your input is vital!!
A Zoom option will be available for those who cannot attend, but we urge as many of you as possible to be present in person.
Lunch and childcare will be provided.
An Update on Committees
August 21, 2026
The vestry is delighted to report that our invitation to join committees for calling the next rector got a robust response. The vestry deliberated and chose potential chairs for each committee, but some are not vestry members and still need to be asked. The committee membership has been sketched out using both people who volunteered themselves and others suggested by vestry members. Nothing is yet set in stone. So if you are thinking you might want to participate, by all means come forward. Read more about the committees below:
A Prayer for the Election of a Rector
Almighty God, the giver of every good gift: Look graciously, we beseech thee, on thy Church, and so guide with thy heavenly wisdom the minds of those to whom is committed the choice of a Rector for this Parish that we may receive a faithful Pastor, who shall feed thy flock according to thy will, and make ready a people acceptable unto thee; through Jesus Christ, thine only Son, our Lord. Amen.