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Welcome Stephen Edmondson our New Rector!
In mid-June the Vestry extended a call to Stephen Edmondson to become our new rector at St. Thomas, unanimously adopting the consensus recommendation of the Search Committee. A letter was mailed to everyone in the parish with the announcement, and the following biographical information was included. To help make sure everyone gets to know Stephen, we are re-printing it here on our website. Welcome, Stephen!
Stephen Edmondson is currently an Associate Professor of Church History at Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) in Alexandria. He was ordained in 1989 and has served in a variety of churches in Texas, New England and the DC area over the last 17 years, developing programs for youth and children, for families, and for senior citizens, developing lay leadership, offering pastoral care and counseling, developing outreach programs, preaching, celebrating the Eucharist, and visiting people in their homes.
Stephen grew up in Longview, Texas, a small town east of Dallas. His father was a family doctor. After high school Stephen applied and was accepted to Stanford University, where he majored in Classical Studies and graduated in 1984. Intensely interested in Theology and already contemplating a life in the ministry, he applied and was accepted to Yale Divinity School, where he graduated with his Masters in 1988.
The following year Stephen was ordained in Texas and joined St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church as their assistant rector. The departure of St. Cyprian’s rector required Stephen to take on early leadership roles as lead priest at the church until a new rector could be named, and as the headmaster of the Episcopal Day School. He led the worship, provided the pastoral care and led the youth group through an exciting period of growth in numbers and programs.
In 1991, Stephen returned to Yale to continue his studies and obtain his Doctoral degree in Theology. He attached himself to a cluster ministry of five small congregations in central Connecticut, where he built lay leadership, provided pastoral care and preached on a weekly basis while completing his doctorate, which he received in 1999. (His thesis at Yale Divinity was on Calvin’s Christology; he published a book of that title through Cambridge University Press in 2004.)
That same year, the now Reverend Doctor Stephen Edmondson accepted a position at VTS as Assistant Professor of Church History. His eight years at VTS have been professionally and spiritually rewarding. Stephen taught courses in church history, theology and spirituality, wrote extensively, led the faculty in a comprehensive review and revision of liturgical practices and was promoted and tenured in 2005 as an Associate Professor of Church History.
However, Stephen has always felt the need to be closely connected to real parish life. He joined St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. as an adjunct clergy where he served as deacon, developed and led the hospitality program and worked actively with the youth group.
Along the way Stephen managed to find time for romance! He met Cynthia Hess at Yale, fell in love, cut off his ponytail and got married. Cyndi, who also received a doctorate in Theology from Yale, has recently given up her position as a visiting professor at St. Mary’s College in Maryland, where she taught in their department of Philosophy and Religion. She is currently editing a book manuscript and exploring vocational opportunities with non-profits interested in peace-building, race, and gender. Stephen and Cyndi have a strapping two-year-old son, Andrew, and another child “on the way.” Their family currently worships at Immanuel-on-the-Hill in Alexandria, where Stephen also serves as an adjunct priest.
Welcome from the Search Committee and the Vestry
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