Advent Welcomes Rev. Canon Tom Murray

Dear Parish Family,

I write to share exciting news of a new addition to our clergy team. The Reverend Canon Tom Murray will join us mid-July and will serve in the role of Vice Dean. I am thrilled that Tom and his wife Perrin will be a part of our community. Tom and Perrin have been married for 29 years, have four adult children ranging in ages from 26 to 20, and two dogs, Gus and Bishop.

Tom has been ordained for 25 years. Prior to his ordination, he served in youth ministry, including as Director of Youth Ministry for Frank Limehouse. Following ordination Tom served as the Associate Rector for Family Ministry at St. Helena’s, once again with Frank. Perhaps one of Tom’s most significant ministry accomplishments was serving as the chair of the ordination discernment committee for our former Vice Dean, Heidi Kinner, as she discerned a call to ordained ministry. Over the course of Tom’s ministry, he has served faithfully, giftedly, and humbly in various capacities: in pastoral care, youth ministry, family ministry, as a head of school, and as rector of two congregations. I thank God that who we are, our gifts and our challenges, and the ways that God is leading us are as compelling to him as they are to me.

Most recently, Tom has served as the Rector of St. Mark’s in Jacksonville, Florida, for the past eight years. His ministry led in a way that produced stability and growth as well as a deepening of faith and sense of mission. We are thankful that his gifts, his collegiality, and the warm and winsome faith of Tom and Perrin will be a part of our community.

Please join me in praying for Tom, Perrin, and their family – certainly, for all of the specific challenges that moving brings such as finding a home and settling into a community, but also the challenge of leaving a community you have loved and served for many years. I admire their faithfulness in answering this call.

Again, I am thrilled, I thank God that Tom and Perrin will join us soon, and I am excited for you to meet them and for them to meet you. Grateful for you all.

The Lord be with you,