LETTER TO THE PARISH FROM THE WARDENS

April 17, 2026

Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,

As we begin the search for our next rector, we are entering an important season of listening and discernment. This letter outlines the search process, introduces the teams formed as part of that process, and requests your participation in gatherings that will mark the beginning of the process. 

Initiating the Search: Congregational Meetings in May

At the heart of the search process is a simple but vital question: Who are we as a congregation, and who do we believe God is calling us to become? Our response to this question will guide the discernment process for our next rector. 

On Sunday, May 3, and Sunday, May 17, the Rev. Canon Dena Cleaver-Bartholomew from the Diocese will lead gatherings designed to help us reflect together, listen deeply, and articulate our shared experience and hopes for St. Martin’s. 

• Sunday, May 3 – Parish History Event 
• Sunday, May 17 – Congregational Conversation

Your participation in these conversations is vitally important. The parish profile that will guide our rector search—and inform prospective candidates about St. Martin’s—will be shaped by what emerges from these parish-wide conversations. Your presence at these two meetings will help ensure that our parish profile truly reflects who we are. Please let us know if you will attend by registering in one of the following ways:

Website: Visit www.stmartinsprov.org and follow the prompts to register.

Thursday Newsletter: Look for the registration link.

Sunday Bulletin: Use the QR code.

In-Person Coffee Hour Registration: Visit us by the fireplace in the Great Hall during coffee hour. 

Both meetings will take place in the Great Hall after the 10:00 am service. Lunch and childcare will be provided, and each gathering will last approximately two hours. We look forward to these important conversations.

Rector Transition Leadership Teams

To support our congregation’s search process, we have created four transition leadership teams. 

Prayer team. The members of this team will create or adapt a prayer for the search process that will be used regularly in worship, shared on our website, and serve to open search-related meetings. Members are: Brian Robert, Susan Allen, Bill Hollinshead, Meg LoPresti, Mary Jane Pagan, and Jeana Whittredge.

Profile team. This team, guided by the conversations that take place in May, will prepare responses to questions provided by the Diocese, which will serve as St. Martin’s profile in the Office of Transition Ministry’s database. Members are: Hugh Gorman, Tony Cottone, Mary Hollinshead, Paige Macnie, and Leanne Nyahkoon.

Discernment team. Guided by the profile created for St. Martin’s, this team commits to prayerfully reviewing application material, interviewing candidates, and discerning the next priest for St. Martin’s. Members are: Elizabeth Welshman, Clark Anderson, Helen Anthony, Chris Dennis, Bonnie Gorman, Connie Hildesley, Doug Hill, Elizabeth Mueller, and Rick Porter. 

Communications team. This team will ensure that our website accurately and effectively communicates who we are as a congregation to potential candidates and new members. Members are: Sheila Hoogeboom, Elizabeth Blake, Rebecca Kidwell, Susan Kostas, Frank Pellegrino, and Kathryn Barr.

We are deeply grateful to the parishioners listed above for offering their time and gifts in service of this shared work.

Welcoming Linda+ as our Interim Rector

Linda+ Griggs will serve as St. Martin’s interim rector for one year. She will step into this position on May 1, 2026. This is a three-quarters position, which means that lay leadership will be especially important if St. Martin’s is to continue its current program of worship services, outreach, formation, and pastoral care.

Covenant of Departure with Mark+

Mark+’s last day as rector of St. Martin’s will be Sunday, April 26. In the Episcopal church, congregations are asked to refrain from contacting their previous rector during the transition to a new rector. If someone from the congregation seeks advice, Mark+ is expected to redirect them to Linda+ or lay leadership, as appropriate.

Let’s all give Mark+ the warmest of farewells in the coming weeks.

On behalf of the Vestry,

Elizabeth Welshman, Senior Warden

Hugh Gorman, Junior Warden