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Leadership The Church of St. Stephen and the Incarnation is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. Our chief pastor is the Right Rev. John Bryson Chane, Bishop of Washington. With his blessing and encouragement, St. Stephen's has developed a model of ministry and leadership in which service is provided by lay people and clergy, paid people and volunteers--a model that reflects "the priesthood of all believers." Our lay leaders are our Vestry and Wardens, who are elected by the congregation. Our clergy are a team made up of our Senior Priest, elected by the Vestry with the consent of the Bishop, who is salaried and works 20 hours a week for St. Stephen's, and five other priests, who make their livings in other ways. Primary leadership of the congregation is shared by the Senior Priest and the Senior Warden, under the continuing oversight of the Bishop. This is a different model from most Episcopal churches, where a priest with the title of Rector holds almost all authority. Our Vestry The Wardens and Vestry have ultimate authority and responsibility for the governance of the church, including the responsibility for parish property and financial affairs. In collaboration with the Senior Priest, the Wardens and Vestry are responsible for developing and executing policies that promote the church's mission through worship, education, social action and service. The Vestry meets once each month on the 4th Sunday following the 10:30am service. Each Vestry member is expected to serve on one Parish committee or working group. This ensures communication and accountability between the Vestry and the committees. Our Clergy Team The Rev. Frank Dunn joined St. Stephen's in May, 2004. As St. Stephen's Senior Priest, he is the convener of the clergy team.
Frank's ministry in the last decade has included an increasing emphasis on issues of spiritual development and social justice for sexual minorities in the Church, as well as a deepening concentration on men's spiritual issues. With a love of preaching and story-telling, he sees his whole ministry as a matter of helping people make connections between their faith and their everyday lives, especially as they seek God in the midst of changes and transitions they experience. The Rev. Sarabeth Goodwin is St. Stephen's Latino Missioner. Sarabeth works out of St. Stephen's thanks to a grant from the Diocese of Washington, and the support of the Bishop of Washington, The Rt. Rev. John Bryson Chane.
In 1984 Sarabeth and her husband, John Racin, moved to Mount Pleasant, where they raised two daughters. In 1995, Sarabeth was drawn back to the church and began to hear a new call to ordained ministry, entering Virginia Theological Seminary in 2002. A study trip and several subsequent trips to the Dominican Republic changed the direction of her ministry. "The spilling-over joy that washed over me from people who often had next to nothing in material wealth was a gift of grace. It witnessed to a deep wellspring of spiritual riches that we in our abundance are often missing." This experience pulled her more deeply towards a ministry of "border crossing"—the privilege of experiencing the richness of a new culture emerging from cultures left behind and of standing with those whose lives point to the Gospel imperative in a new land. The Rev. Joseph M. Clark and his wife Meredith Myers began attending St. Stephen's in January of 2006, soon after he retired as Rector of Ascension, Gaithersburg.
Joe left the parish ministry in the 1970s to do community organizing and political action in Baltimore and then joined Governor Harry Hughes' staff. After seven years, he returned to the parish, first on Maryland's Eastern Shore, and then in Torrington, CT. While in Connecticut, Joe was instrumental in forming the community Soup Kitchen and the Northwest Connecticut AIDS project. In 1991, Joe was called to be Rector of Ascension, Gaithersburg. He enjoys his three children, three step children, and eight grandchildren, as well as traveling with his wife, and woodworking. The Rev. Dr. Ronald Conner has a long history at St. Stephen's. Originally from the Washington area, he received a call in 1961 from St. Stephen's Rector, Father Wendt, asking him to participate in a summer program at St. Stephen's as a counselor. It was around that time he felt called to the priesthood. After graduating from Wilson High School and the University of the South, he attended General Theological Seminary in New York City and served parishes in New Jersey, Rhode Island and New York.
Ronald loves words and ritual, but his early training instilled in him a commitment to social action as well as the sacramental. He believes that there is a place for everyone in the church, that there should be a regard for everyone in the church, that there is no last and least in the church, and that the gospel goes into the world. Ronald is also affiliated with Christ Church, Georgetown, and Ascension and St. Agnes, and he is a cathedral chaplain. He has taught classes on scripture, theology, the history of liturgy, and prayer at a number of parishes in the diocese. The Rev. Dr. A. Katherine Grieb was born in the Diocese of Easton, on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where she was baptized and confirmed in the Episcopal Church as a child. While a student at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia, she became excited about biblical studies, theology, and "the movement church," the part of the church that is committed to working for peace, civil rights, and economic justice for all. A philosophy and religion major in college, she also learned how to do community organizing around race and poverty, gained experience in innercity ministries, and served as president of the peace organization.
Following graduation from Virginia Seminary, she was ordained by Bishop John Walker and served for the next ten years in the Diocese of Maine. During that time, she earned her Ph.D. from Yale University and taught for two years at Bangor Theological Seminary, before returning to teach at the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1994. She also teaches regularly at the Servant Leadership School associated with the Church of the Savior. She has published a book on Romans and is presently writing one on Hebrews. The Rev. Linda Kaufman is from Seattle, but her family moved a few times, ending up in northern Virginia, where Linda attended high school and her father raised beef cattle on a farm in Round Hill. Her religious background is Lutheran and Evangelical Charismatic Episcopal. After attending George Mason and majoring in Elementary Education, she landed a very good job as a consultant in performance problem solving. At thirty, she had what she thought would take her until she was sixty to accomplish. She should have been content, even happy. But something was missing.
In the fall of 1997 she attended St. Stephen's at the urging of Bishop Jane Dixon. She and Liane Rozzell had a commitment ceremony in 1998. Linda and Liane are parents to Ryan and Jamal. |
Frank holds a degree in English from Randolph-Macon College. He studied theology, concentrating in American church history, at Princeton Theological Seminary, and did further graduate work at The General Theological Seminary, New York City. After becoming ordained he became Curate of St. Martin's Church, Charlotte, North Carolina (1971-74) and later Rector of St. Andrew's Church, Charlotte (1975-79). During his tenure as Rector of Trinity Church, Newtown, Connecticut (1979-92), he was instrumental in developing several agencies serving human needs, including the Family Life Center of Newtown and Amos House of Danbury. He also developed training programs for laity involved in worship and pastoral care. Frank came to St. Stephen's from St. John's, Lynchburg, VA, where as rector he led major reforms in worship, education, outreach, and property.
Sarabeth was born, raised and educated in the hills of West Virginia. She majored in languages and taught English in a French high school in Normandy while working on her graduate degree. She lived in a small village in Portugal on the border with Spain for 6 years before returning to the United States where she married her college sweetheart.
A native of Wichita, Kansas, Joe attended Northwestern University and then Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA. His first day of class was the day after Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. The events of the early 1960s, when the church was deeply involved in issues of justice and peace, forever shaped both his life and his ministry. 
He has recently completed another doctorate on the Liturgical Theology of Father Alexander Schmemann, an American Russian Orthodox priest who died in 1983. He has also studied at Drew University and at Princeton Seminary and has a Doctor of Ministry in liturgics. 
After college, she attended Columbus School of Law at Catholic University. She was admitted to the bar associations of Maryland and Washington, DC, but practiced law only briefly before entering the Virginia Theological Seminary. She had been attending St. Stephen's during law school, attracted by its hands-on ministries to the poor, especially Loaves and Fishes, its commitment to women's leadership in the church, and its version of post-Vatican II liturgical renewal. St. Stephen's was her sponsoring parish through the ordination process in the Diocese of Washington.
Linda went to church one Sunday, and it changed her life. In the Fall of 1977 she committed herself to Christ and soon entered seminary. At first she only meant to get a Ph.D. and teach, but some of her professors suggested ordination. So she attended Virginia Theological Seminary for her last two years. It was there that she met Jack Woodard, former Rector of St. Stephen's and an adjunct professor, who told his students that they were too pietistically insular, too set apart from the real world. The next weekend, Linda spent the night in a woman's shelter in Washington. She realized two things: that she had been called to preach, and that she had been called to be out on the streets. She was soon ordained.