We are proud that our Annual Conference always features a broad array of leaders that cover many denominations, fields of study, and lived experiences. Here you can learn more about the people who will lead us this year.
Hymn Festival Leaders
Robert Batastini, FHS
Robert J. Batastini, FHS, is the retired vice president and senior editor of GIA Publications, Inc., Chicago. Though retired from management, he maintains an active role at GIA. Bob has seventy years of service in pastoral music ministry, having served several parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago and one in the Diocese of Joliet. He served as executive editor and project director for the Worship hymnals (three editions), Gather hymnals (three editions), Catholic Community Hymnal, and as executive editor of RitualSong. Since retirement, he has continued as project director for Lead Me, Guide Me—Second Edition, and served on the editorial committees for Worship—Fourth Edition, and Oramos Cantando.
Bob is past-president of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, served as a member of the Council for the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, and was a member of the Music Advisory Committee of the Bishops Committee on the Liturgy which drafted the Bishops’ document, Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship.
Mary Louise Bringle, FHS
Mary Louise (Mel) Bringle is Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies and chair of the Humanities Division at Brevard College (Brevard, North Carolina). A teacher at heart and a theologian by training (with a Ph.D. from Emory University and an assortment of publications in pastoral theology), she began writing hymn texts in 1999. Since that time, she has won a number of international hymn-writing competitions and been featured as an “emerging text writer” by The Hymn Society in the US and Canada.
GIA has published two single-author collections of her hymns (Joy and Wonder, Love and Longing in 2002, and In Wind and Wonder in 2007), as well as anthems written in collaboration with composers like William Rowan, Sally Morris, and others. Her texts and translations are included in publications from numerous denominations, including Roman Catholic, Mennonite, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Episcopalian, United Church of Canada, and Church of Scotland. She served as President of The Hymn Society and chair of the committee to create a new hymnal for the Presbyterian Church USA.
C. Michael Hawn, FHS
Michael Hawn is the University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Church Music, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. He is the author of several books related to congregational songs, the USA Editor for the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology, and editor of the United Methodist Discipleship Resources site, History of Hymns.
Jan Kraybill, FHS
GRAMMY-nominated artist Jan Kraybill is a concert organist, pianist, and harpsichordist; a dynamic speaker, educator, church musician, and consultant; and an enthusiastic cheerleader for the power of music to change lives for the better.
In addition to maintaining a very active concert schedule, Dr. Kraybill is organ conservator at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri; organist-in-residence at the international headquarters of Community of Christ in Independence, Missouri; and organist at Village on Antioch Presbyterian Church in Overland Park, Kansas. In these roles she plays and oversees the care of three of the Kansas City metro area’s largest pipe organs: the 113-rank Aeolian-Skinner (1959) and 102-rank Casavant (1993) at Community of Christ’s Auditorium and Temple, and the Kauffman Center’s 102-rank Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant (2012).
Throughout her career Jan has performed as both a solo and collaborative musician, designed and led international hymn festivals, taught workshops on a variety of topics, and inspired audiences and congregations. While in high school in Colby, Kansas, Jan was invited to play her first European piano recital in Andover, England. She has performed in many venues in North America and Europe, and in Australia, Russia, South Korea, and Tahiti. Her multiple tours of the United Kingdom have included organ concerts at the grand cathedrals of Chester, Exeter, and St. Paul’s in London. In 2015 she designed and led a hymn festival at the International Gathering of Hymn Societies at Cambridge University.
Jan has been a featured artist and teacher at regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), the American Choral Directors Association, the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, and other musicians’ organizations, and has been heard on many broadcasts of American Public Media’s national program Pipedreams. She has collaborated with many ensembles, including the Bach Aria Soloists, the Phoenix Chorale, Kantorei Denver, the GRAMMY-winning Kansas City Chorale, the GRAMMY-nominated Kansas City Symphony and Symphony Chorus, and others.
Several solo CDs and collaborative recordings are available. Jan’s first solo CD, Two by 2: Two Organ Symphonies on Two Magnificent Organs, features both of Community of Christ’s pipe organs. Rejoice and Remember contains hymn arrangements for piano. The Auditorium Organ: Fifty Years of Excellence celebrated that organ’s 50th anniversary in 2009. Solo CDs of the Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant were released by Reference Recordings in 2014 and 2019: Organ Polychrome features music by French composers, and The Orchestral Organ is a disc of transcriptions. Her most recent album, Marked for Grace, was produced by ProOrgano and released in June 2021 by Naxos.
Jan has recorded for Reference Recordings with the Kansas City Symphony on several occasions. Their disc containing Saint-Saëns’ “Organ” Symphony was nominated for a GRAMMY in 2015. Her second solo album with Reference, The Orchestral Organ, received three nominations for GRAMMY awards in 2020, including Best Classical Instrumental Solo.
Dr. Kraybill’s degrees in music education and piano and organ performance were earned at Kansas State University and the Conservatory of Music and Dance in Kansas City. In 2010 she achieved the distinction of Fellow of the AGO, the highest certification level available for organists. She has served in many local, regional, and national roles in the AGO, The Hymn Society, and the Master Teacher Institute, most recently as Executive Director of The Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada. She is a member of Mensa. Her extra-musical interests include antiquing, lace making, and riding her Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
Phillip Morgan
Phillip Morgan has served as Director of Music at Central Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, since 2012. He is also the Artistic Director of the Louisville Gay Men’s Chorus. Phillip has had the privilege of leading the choir at the Presbyterian Youth Triennium, being a member of the Montreat Worship and Music Conference planning team and looks forward to beginning his service on the Presbyterian Association of Musicians executive board. Both a conductor and a singer, Phillip currently sings with the Louisville Chamber Choir and has been a featured soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, the Choral Arts Society, and a studio artist with the Kentucky Opera.
Plenary Speakers
Margaret Aymer
Margaret Aymer joined the faculty of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 2015. She teaches core courses on the Introduction to the New Testament, Exegesis, and Greek and elective courses in numerous disciplines including African Americans and the Bible, and feminist and womanist biblical interpretation. She became Academic Dean in 2022—the first woman and the first person of color to hold that position. In 2024 her title changed to Vice-president for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty.
Active in the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion, she has spoken as a guest lecturer at numerous academic and church conferences across the United States, including the 2013 MidWinter Lectures at Austin Seminary. There she was the Robert Jones Lecturer, offering a discourse on the “New Testament as Migrant Writings.” Aymer wrote Confessing the Beatitudes, the 2011 Horizons Bible Study (the annual Bible study resource for Presbyterian women), for which she won the Award of Excellence by the Associated Church Press.
Aymer has published four books: James: Diaspora Rhetorics of a Friend of God (Sheffield Publishing, 2014), Fortress Commentary on the Bible (with Gale A. Yee, Fortress Press, 2014); First Pure, then Peaceable: Frederick Douglass Reads James (T&T Clark, 2008), and Islanders, Islands and the Bible: Ruminations (Semeia Studies, 2015; with Jione Havea).
Prior to coming to Austin Seminary, Dr. Aymer taught at Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia, since 2004. Aymer has served the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) broadly. She has served on the Presbyteries’ Cooperative Committee on Examinations since 2010, moderating the six persons who write the Bible Exegesis Ordination Examination for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She was a member of the Committee on Preparation of Ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) from 2010-2011, training sessions (governing bodies) of local congregations on the ordination process and their responsibilities therein. Aymer was also a member of the General Assembly Task Force on Civil Unions and Marriage (2009-2010), and she served as a steering committee member for the Committee on Theological Education Consultation on Racism from 2004-2008.
Jennaya Robison
Jennaya Robison is the Artistic Director of the National Lutheran Choir and is a highly accomplished conductor, educator, and vocalist. She holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in choral conducting from the University of Arizona, the Master of Music in conducting and voice from the University of New Mexico, and an undergraduate degree in music (education and voice) from Luther College. Her extensive work in the field of choral conducting includes serving as the Raymond R. Neevel/Missouri Associate Professor and Director of Choral Studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory until 2023, Associate Professor of Choral Music at Luther College from 2013 to 2020, and founding Scottsdale Musical Arts in 2009.
In demand as a clinician and guest speaker, Robison frequently appears at regional and national choral conferences and seminars; regularly leads All State and honor choirs, workshops, and festivals; and has taught courses in choral singing and global connection in the United States, Namibia, South Africa, Germany, and an upcoming festival in Italy (2024). She is the editor of the National Lutheran Choir Series with MorningStar Music Publishers as well as the Jennaya Robison Series with Pavane Publishing, and she is an active arranger of choral music. Robison has served as soloist and chorister with the Dale Warland Singers, True Concord Voices, Spire Chamber Ensemble, and the Tucson Symphony among many other ensembles. She is the national chair of Music in Worship for the American Choral Directors Association, a member of Chorus America, and has held leadership positions at Lutheran churches in Arizona, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota.
Peter Marty
Peter W. Marty serves as senior pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, a 3500-member congregation in Davenport, Iowa, and editor/publisher of The Christian Century, a journal devoted to shaping America’s conversation about religion and faith in public life. He writes a monthly column for the Century.
A frequent preacher and speaker at churches and conferences across the country, Marty has written several hundred articles related to culture, character, and faith issues in our day. He is the author of The Anatomy of Grace (Augsburg Fortress, 2008). From 2004-2009, he served as host of the national radio broadcast, Grace Matters.
In 2010, the Academy of Parish Clergy named him “Parish Pastor of the Year,” an award recognizing leadership excellence and faithfulness in congregational development.
Peter has preached in some of America’s more notable pulpits including Washington National Cathedral, Duke Chapel, and Yale University. From 2010 to 2016 he served as the lead columnist for The Lutheran magazine. He is the recipient of Yale Divinity School’s Alumni Award for Distinction in Congregational Ministry (2022), and was the visiting Hoskins Fellow at Yale in 2009.
Peter Marty has served on various hospital, college, foundation, and community boards. He has served as narrator for different faith broadcast documentaries. Marty is a one-time fellow of the Fund for Theological Education, past member of the Louisville Institute’s Pastor’s Working Group, and a former participant in the Duke Project for the Study of Ministry.
He is a graduate of The Colorado College and Yale Divinity School, and was the recipient of an honors fellowship in history for study at Oxford University.
Peter W. Marty has piloted interfaith dialogue events, been active in anti-hate group efforts, and served on different ecumenical ministry boards. Since 2005, he has led a pastoral residency program at St. Paul Lutheran Church, initiated by the Lilly Endowment Inc. This program, designed for fostering pastoral excellence, is the only such program in the country situated in a Lutheran Church setting.
He is the recipient of two honorary doctorates. Peter is married to Susan, and they have two adult children with families in Colorado.
Morning Prayer Leaders
Matthew Boutda
Featured on CBC’s list of “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30,” Matthew Boutda is a Lao-Canadian conductor, tenor, and organist in pursuit of his Doctor of Music in Choral Conducting at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music under the tutelage of Dr. Jean-Sébastien Vallée.
Matthew is a Course Lecturer and Conductor of the McGill University Chorus. He is also the Director of Music at Leaside United Church in Toronto, Ontario, where he conducts the Chancel Choir. He serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada.
As a conductor, Matthew has worked with choirs such as the Elmer Iseler Singers, Ontario Youth Choir, National Youth Choir of Canada, Pax Christi Chorale, Schulich Singers, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Vancouver Chamber Choir, and the Western University Singers.
Matthew holds a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Western Ontario, a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Sacred Music from the University of Toronto, and an Associate Diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music. In addition to our Fellowship, Matthew is a recent recipient of the Clifford Evens Graduate Conducting Award, Gerald Wheeler Award, Helen Hall Prize, and Wayne Riddell Choral Award.
Chris de Silva
Chris de Silva is a widely published composer of sacred music whose music appears in hymnals and compilations throughout the world. A native of Singapore, he currently resides in Los Angeles where he serves as Associate Director of the campus ministry team at Loyola Marymount University and lectures in the LMU Department of Theological Studies. Chris holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Composition and Film Scoring from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, a Master of Arts in Pastoral Theology from Loyola Marymount University and a Doctor of Ministry from Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
Megan Mash
Megan Mash grew up in Independence, Missouri, and began playing piano at the age of seven. She was active in the music program, both as a participant and leader, in her home church. Megan earned a Bachelor of Arts in music and religion from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. She earned a Masters of Sacred Music with a concentration in organ from Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of Theology. She studied organ with Larry Palmer, conducting with David R. Davidson, children’s music with Julie Scott and hymnody and church music with Michael Hawn and Christopher Anderson. She is currently a Doctorate of Pastoral Music Candidate at Perkins School of Theology. Megan has served The Hymn Society of the United States and Canada as a Deborah Carlton Loftis Ambassador, chaired the centennial collection committee, and is currently serving on the Executive Community as secretary. She is also a member of the American Guild of Organists, The Fellowship, and Choristers Guild. Megan has been serving churches full-time since 2010 and is currently the Director of Worship and Music at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Featured Session Leaders
Emerging Scholars Forum
We are currently accepting applications for this year’s Emerging Scholars Forum. Three scholars will be selected to receive a full conference scholarship and who will provide the first Featured Session at the conference. For details on the application process, click here.
Geoffrey Moore
Dr. Geoffrey C. Moore is an elder in the North Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church currently serving as the senior pastor for Greenland Hills UMC in Dallas, Texas. He also serves as the Creative Director of A Ministry of Congregational Singing & Worship, a ministry devoted to helping congregations strengthen their voice and deepen their worship life. Dr. Moore holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies with an emphasis in Systematic Theology from Southern Methodist University. His work focuses on examining the intersection of music and theology. Dr. Moore serves as an adjunct professor in theology and worship at Perkins School of Theology (SMU), where he also serves as Curator of Community Worship.
Organ Recitalist
Andrew Johnson
Named one of The Diapason’s “20 Under 30,” Andrew Johnson plans to one day teach and inspire the next generation of performers, academics, and church musicians. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, he is currently pursuing a DMA degree in organ performance and literature at the Eastman School of Music, where he studies with David Higgs and serves as a teaching assistant in music theory and aural skills. Andrew previously earned an MM degree and a graduate performance diploma from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Daniel Aune and was a graduate assistant in ear training. He earned a BM degree, summa cum laude, from Illinois Wesleyan University, studying organ with Susan Klotzbach and voice and choral conducting with J. Scott Ferguson. Additional private organ study has been with John Walker, Marie-Louise Langlais, and Jean-Baptiste Robin.
Andrew is assistant organist at Christ Church (Episcopal) in Rochester, New York, following tenures as organist and choirmaster at Mount Calvary Catholic Church in Baltimore, Maryland, and organist and choir director at Wesley United Methodist Church in Bloomington, Illinois.
An active member of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), Andrew holds the guild’s Associate and Choirmaster certifications, serves as chair of the National Committee for Career Development and Support, and earned the 2023 S. Lewis Elmer Award. His research has been published in The American Organist and The Tracker magazines and his competition credits include earning second place in the Sursa American Organ Competition (2022), first place in the inaugural James M. Weaver Prize in Organ Scholarship (2023), and being a finalist in the AGO National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance (2024).
Organ Institute Director
Nicole Keller
Nicole Keller is in demand as a concert artist, adjudicator, and clinician. She has concertized in the States and abroad in venues such as St. Patrick Cathedral, New York; Cathédrale Notre-Dame, Paris; Dom St. Stephan, Passau; St. Patrick Cathedral, Armagh, Northern Ireland; and The Kazakh National University for the Arts, Astana, Kazakhstan. Ms. Keller specializes in eclectic programs suited to instrument and audience with a desire to expand the listener’s horizons, pairing familiar sounds and genres with less familiar ones. Her performances with orchestras includes concertos, works for small chamber orchestra, and large works involving organ, harpsichord, and piano. She has extensive experience as a chamber musician and as a continuo player, including many performances of Bach’s St. Matthew and St. John Passions, the Christmas Oratorio, and the Mass in B minor in addition to a host of cantatas and baroque chamber music.
As a teacher, Ms. Keller strives to foster and model a commitment to excellence in performance, scholarship and self-growth as students deepen their love of music and their instrument. Her students have been accepted into and attended prestigious graduate schools throughout the country and enjoy successful musical careers in a variety of settings. She was recently appointed to the faculty of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance at the University of Michigan and is also Visiting Instructor of Organ at the Interlochen Arts Academy.
Ms. Keller’s work as a church musician includes work with volunteer and professional choirs and instrumental ensembles devoted to the highest level of music for worship. She has created organ and choral scholar programs at small and mid-size parishes, developed successful children’s choir programs, and has led choirs on tour in the states and abroad including choral residencies at Bristol Cathedral, U.K. and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland.
Ms. Keller received the Performer’s Certificate and the Master of Music Degree in Organ Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, under the tutelage of David Higgs. While at Eastman, she studied continuo with Arthur Haas and improvisation with Gerre Hancock. She received the Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance from the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music in Berea, Ohio, where she studied piano with George Cherry and Jean Stell and organ with Margaret Scharf.
Sectional Leaders
David Anderson
David Anderson serves as Editor-at-Large for GIA Publications. Additionally, he serves as Organist and Director of Pastoral Music and Liturgy at Ascension and St. Edmund Parish in Oak Park, Illinois, where he conducts three parish choirs of various sizes and age groups. Since 1992, David has prepared and coordinated monthly prayer services in the spirit of Taizé, which brings together hundreds of people from many Christian traditions at each gathering. David completed a Master of Church Music at Concordia University, and a Master of Liturgy and Ministry at Catholic Theological Union, both in Chicago. In 2024, he completed a Doctor of Pastoral Music at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He is a regular presenter at conferences and retreats throughout the country, speaking in the areas of music, liturgy, the Community of Taizé and other contemplative prayer outreaches.
Jennifer Baker-Trinity
Deacon Jennifer Baker-Trinity serves as Program Manager for Worship Resource Development, a shared position between the ELCA and Augsburg Fortress Publishers. In this position she attends to developing and teaching about resources that support the church’s worship. Jennifer completed her studies at Valparaiso University and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (now United Lutheran Seminary). She has been a member of The Hymn Society, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, and the North American Academy of Liturgy where she convenes the Liturgical Language Seminar. From 2017-2020 she co-chaired the Institute of Liturgical Studies at Valparaiso University. Jennifer has served as a church musician and has written for several devotional and worship resources. She lives in Shoreview, Minnesota, with her spouse and three children.
Kensley Behel
Kensley Behel is the CEO and president of the Musicians’ Health Lab Inc. Prior to her appointment with the Musicians’ Health Lab, Dr. Behel earned her Ph.D. in Performing Arts Health with a minor in sacred music from the University of North Texas. Her research area focuses on the health and wellbeing of pastoral musicians. On the side, Kensley covers gymnastics around the globe. She has covered six world gymnastics championships in England, Scotland, Belgium, Germany, Canada, and Japan. She recently worked as a researcher for NBC at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. She resides with her husband in Colorado where they serve as lay church musicians in their local congregation.
Cynthia Berryman
Cynthia Berryman has been teaching vocal and instrumental music from preschool through university for nearly three decades. She is certified in Orff-Schulwerk music and has additional training in Kodály and Dalcroze techniques. She is currently teaching music at Elm Road Elementary School in Mishawaka, Indiana. Her previous teaching includes high school choir, swing choir, and band; K-8 Orff-Schulwerk music and band at St. Joseph Grade School, South Bend, Indiana; and music education adjunct teaching at St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame. She has a B.S. in All Area Music Education from Ball State University; additional training from VanderCook College of Music, Chicago, and Westminster College, Oxford. Berryman earned a Master’s degree in Music Education, with an emphasis on fine arts integration and literacy, through Anderson University.
Conie Borchardt
Conie Borchardt (she/they) is the Executive Director of Music that Makes Community, where they delight in sharing the practice of communal song-sharing to inspire culture participation and creation. As a freelance Public Heart Artist, Conie listens and moves from the confluences of the past, present, and not yet; Asian-European ancestry; and the Misi-ziibi and Mni’sota Rivers with training in music, Dances of Universal Peace, and spiritual direction. Conie has 30+ years of church music experience in Lutheran, Episcopal and UCC congregations.
Gary Cox
The Rev. Gary Cox is vicar of Santa Teresa de Avila Episcopal Church and pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church in Chicago. He has played cello and guitar in various orchestras and chamber ensembles in Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas, Ecuador, and Guatemala. He has participated in the Episcopal Cancionero project since 2007.
Laura D’Angiola
Teacher, active member of the Methodist Church in Argentina, currently coordinating the Liturgy Commission of the Methodist Church in Argentina. Has participated in many international liturgy activities, and is a founding member of Red Crearte.
Carl P. Daw Jr., FHS
Carl P. Daw Jr., FHS, is a well-known hymnwriter whose hymns have appeared in numerous English-language hymnals around the world and have been translated into Spanish, Dutch, German, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. Hope Publishing Company has published five collections of his hymns as well as his complete metrical version of the Psalms in three volumes. During the 1990s he organized and led a series of summer hymnwriting conferences for The Hymn Society, usually held at St. Olaf College. From 1996 to 2009 he served as the Executive Director of The Hymn Society. Over a span of twenty-three years he taught hymnology courses at Boston University School of Theology and Yale Divinity School/Institute of Sacred Music and has published hymnological research and commentary in The Hymnal 1982 Companion, The Hymn, Glory to God: A Companion, and other journals and Festschrifts. Most recently he has collaborated with Thomas Pavlechko on a revised and enlarged second edition of their Liturgical Music for the Revised Common Lectionary. As an Episcopal priest he has served parishes in Virginia, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, and he taught for eight years in the English Department of the College of William and Mary before entering seminary.
Kelly Dobbs-Mickus
Kelly Dobbs-Mickus is an editor for MorningStar Music/ECS Publishing Group of St. Louis, Missouri. She has extensive experience in church music publishing, including editorial work on hymnals at GIA, most notably as project editor for Worship, Fourth Edition. Kelly has served as a musician for Catholic churches in the Chicago area for more than thirty-five years; since 2010 she has been the organist at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, Chicago. She is a member of The Hymn Society, the American Guild of Organists, and the National Association of Pastoral Musicians.
Mark Doerries
Dr. Mark Doerries is an Associate Professor in the Practice of Conducting for Sacred Music at Notre Dame and the Artistic Director of the Notre Dame Children’s Choir. Doerries serves as the Artistic Director of the Notre Dame Children’s Choir, the community engagement arm of Sacred Music at Notre Dame. An evangelist for the elevation of children singing sacred music in the Church, his recordings of sacred music with the Notre Dame Children’s Choir have debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Chart of Classical Music and Billboard’s Chart of Jazz Music. He is the founding editor of the Notre Dame Children’s Choir Choral Series, published by MorningStar Music Publishers/ECS Publishing Group, and appears on the Universal Music Group, Arsis Records, and Dynamic Catholic recording labels. Doerries received his doctorate from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and holds additional degrees from the College of William and Mary and Temple University.
Rusty Edwards
Rusty Edwards,DMin, DD is an ordained Lutheran minister from Marietta, Georgia. His songs are included in 100+ books worldwide, and he has published several collections of his own songs. He is Executive Producer of the GRAMMY winning album How Love Begins by Nicole Zuraitis.
Stephen Fearing
Rev. Stephen M. Fearing is a Hymn Society member, hymn writer, liturgist, musician, and PCUSA minister currently serving as the Head of Staff of Guilford Park Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is currently working on his Doctor of Ministry at New Brunswick Theological Seminary where his thesis is exploring collaborative congregational song as a powerful tool to preach social justice while maintaining the unity of the church in these politically divisive times.
Alfred Fedak
Alfred V. Fedak is a distinguished organist and a widely-published and well-known composer of church music, with over 300 choral and organ works in print. More than 100 of his hymn tunes appear in hymnals and collections throughout the English-speaking world and Asia. Four anthologies of his hymns have been published by Selah Publishing Company, and The Hymn review of his 2009 collection called him “the finest composer of hymn tunes working today.” A Harvard University concert program note has similarly described him as being “widely regarded as one of the greatest living composers of original hymn tunes.” He served on the editorial committee for the hymnal supplement Sing! A New Creation and oversaw the work of the music subcommittee for the current Presbyterian hymnal, Glory to God. As an organ soloist, accompanist, or church musician, he has performed in Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, and Anguilla. He has served as organist and choir director for churches and synagogues in the East and Midwest, most notably from 1990 to 2021 as Minister of Music and Arts at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Capitol Hill in Albany, New York.
Armindo Ferreira
Born in Recife, Brazil, Armindo is a first-year PhD student in Church Music at Baylor University. He holds degrees in Modern Languages and Literature (B.A., 2008), in Music Education (B.M.E., 2016), and in Music (M.M., 2020) from the Federal University of Pernambuco, in Recife, Brazil. He also holds a B.M. in Church Music (2012) from the North Brazil Baptist Theological Seminary (Recife), where he continues to teach. He served at Casa Amarela Baptist Church (Recife) for fourteen years (2010-2024) as pianist and choir director.
C. Michael Hawn, FHS
Please see bio under Hymn Festival Leaders
Jonathan Hehn
Jonathan Hehn, OSL, is a musician and liturgist currently serving as Choral Program Director and Organist as well as a Term Assistant Professor of Sacred Music at the University of Notre Dame. He is a brother in the Order of Saint Luke and holds degrees in music (BM, DM) from the Florida State University and theology (MSM, MA) from the University of Notre Dame. Additional time was spent at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Jonathan has won prizes in both regional and national competitions in organ performance and remains active as a performer and organ clinician. A scholar in the area of sacred music and liturgy as well, Jonathan has presented at both national and international conferences, and his written work has appeared in Worship, The American Organist, The Hymn, These Days, Call to Worship, Sacramental Life, and other print and online periodicals. He currently edits Doxology, a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal of worship and the sacramental life published by OSL Publications. Jonathan resides in South Bend, Indiana, with his wife, three children, and a smattering of pets. A passionate practitioner, writer, and thinker, you can find out what he’s currently up to on Facebook and Instagram.
Zebulon Highben
Zebulon M. Highben is director of Chapel music and associate professor of the practice of church music at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He conducts the Duke Chapel Choir and Schola Cantorum; oversees Duke Chapel’s extensive music program; teaches courses in sacred music and worship at Duke Divinity School; and edits the “Music from Duke Chapel” choral series with MorningStar Music/ECS Publishing Group.
More than seventy of Zebulon’s anthems, hymns, and liturgical compositions are published by eight domestic publishing houses and by Gehrmans Musikförlag in Sweden. Compositional honors include awards from the American Composers Forum, the American Harp Society, The American Prize, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, ASCAP, the Bach Choir (UK), and The Hymn Society. His research has been published in numerous journals, including The Hymn and Choral Journal. He compiled and edited the Augsburg Motet Book (2013) and the Augsburg Chorale Book (2017), and co-edited With a Voice of Singing: Essays on Children, Choirs, and Music in the Church, a Festschrift in honor of Ronald A. Nelson. Zebulon currently serves as executive editor of The Chapel Hymnal, forthcoming from Duke University Chapel and MorningStar Music.
Alan Hommerding
Alan Hommerding is Liturgical Publications Editor at GIA Publications, a hymn text writer and composer, and has served as music director for Edgebrook Community Church (UCC) in Chicago since 2013.
Roy Hopp
Doe Hoyer
Doe Hoyer (they/them) is an organizer and songleader with the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, and coordinates the Repair Network. They have lived on Dakota homelands for most of their life, and are involved locally with the Twin Cities Repair Community for Makoce Ikikcupi (Dakota land recovery). Doe was raised Lutheran, but their spirituality is authentically Earth-based, which calls them into solidarity with Indigenous Peoples. Doe is working on completing their Master’s of Divinity in Interreligious Chaplaincy and Social Transformation.
Marc Jolicoeur
Marc is a lifelong musician and lover of church music. He is an ordained minister with the Wesleyan Church, and serves as a Pastor of Discipleship in Moncton, New Brunswick. He is also an Affiliate Professor at Kingswood University, where he directs the Worship Studies Program, and is a founding member of Worship Leader Research (a team dedicated to better understanding the motivations & practices of Worship Leaders today).
Peter Kolar
Peter Kolar is a composer of Salvadoran-Polish heritage and a classically-trained pianist known for his creative blend of classical, folkloric and pop idioms. His works include the bilingual (English-Spanish) mass settings “Misa Luna” and “Mass of the Sun of Justice,” both recipients of the distinguished mass setting award by the Association of Catholic Publishers, and a solo piano CD titled “Variations.” In 2022, Peter was named Pastoral Musician of the Year by the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, and in 2024 he received the Mary Frances Reza Award for outstanding service to the Hispanic church in the United States. Peter serves as the Editor for Spanish and Bilingual Resources at GIA Publications. He holds a Masters degree in music composition from Northwestern University and resides in El Paso, Texas, where he is the Director of the El Paso Catholic Diocesan Choir.
Thomas Kurtz
Dr. Thomas Kurtz’s research investigates how music and performance functioned as a catalyst for social justice during prominent social movements, with a particular focus among the Queer community in the San Francisco Bay Area. He’s held teaching positions at San Antonio College, and the University of Texas at Austin, and he currently teaches within the Performing Arts & Social Justice department at the University of San Francisco, as well as at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
As an interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. Kurtz’s work as an educator, curator, and researcher thrives at the intersection of popular music, social change, cultural-consciousness, and broader cultural/societal movements. Expanding from faculty instruction in higher education to community workshops, he aims to continue this work with accessibility at the forefront.
Debbie Lou Ludolph
Debbie Lou Ludolph, PhD, Dean of Chapel and Director of the Kanata Centre for Worship and Global Song at Martin Luther University College in Waterloo, Ontario, crafts worship, leads song, and creates song and art events in a multi-faith, multi-cultural context. She teaches courses in practical theology and in leading congregational and community singing. Her dissertation explores how singing together shapes worldview. Debbie Lou’s story emerges from a passion for singing (including performing and teaching singing), a lifetime in the church (including being Director of Worship, Eastern Synod, ELCIC), interacting with The Hymn Society, Music that Makes Community, and Community Music organizations, and learning with the singing community called Inshallah at Luther, which began under her leadership in 2007. Songbooks Sing the Circle Wide (2016) and Sing the Journey Deep (2024) tell more of her story with Inshallah.
Megan Mash
Please see bio under Morning Prayer Leaders
J. Michael McMahon
J. Michael McMahon currently serves as Executive Director of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. An ordained minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Mike is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Washington Theological Union, a Master of Arts degree in liturgical studies from the University of Notre Dame, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from The Catholic University of America. For nearly 30 years he worked in full-time church ministry, most recently from 2013 to 2018 as Minister of Music at National City Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Washington, D.C. He has been a speaker or clinician at national and regional gatherings throughout North America, has written a book on the Christian initiation of adults, and has contributed numerous journal articles on worship, music, ministry, and initiation.
Patrick Michaels
Patrick Michaels has been a professional church musician for 48 years. He was born in Minnesota and attended the University of Minnesota as a music major. Michaels worked at two churches in that area before moving to the Boston area. He has been the Minister of Music at St. James’s Episcopal Church, Cambridge, for 39 years, where he has led the community in a vibrant and innovative music program. He began encouraging and supporting members of the congregation to compose musical Psalm settings for the church’s own use; this program has yielded an abundance of wonderful settings of the Psalms which are sung every week, and the composing continues to this day. Michaels was also the Director of Chapel Music at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge from 2004-2012, where he helped expand the repertoire of and encouraged music-making from all members of the community.
Michaels began writing hymns (both texts and tunes) in the 1970s and has attended various hymn-writing workshops sponsored by The Hymn Society since that time. He has benefited especially from the professional advice of Brian Wren and Al Fedak. Patrick Michaels’ texts and tunes are published in denominational hymnals, in various supplements, and in single-author collections in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Michaels is a member of The Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada. His other profession is teaching piano, which he has done since 1969.
He is married to the Rev. Laurie A. Rofinot, and they have one adult daughter, Marian Rose.
Amanda C. Miller
The. Rev. Dr. Amanda C. Miller (she/her) is a biblical scholar, an ordained minister, and a lifelong musician. She has an undergraduate degree in music therapy, a Master of Divinity, and a PhD in biblical studies. Dr. Miller is Professor of Biblical Studies at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. When she’s not busy with her family’s afterschool activities, she enjoys singing with a local community choir, embroidery, reading, theater, traveling, and kayaking.
Dr. Miller’s professional vocation includes teaching courses on everything from ancient Koine Greek to world religions and gender and the Bible; and publishing accessible scholarship that focuses on justice and ethics in interpreting the biblical text for communities of faith today. She is an ordained Baptist minister, has roots in the Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ), and currently attends a United Methodist Reconciling congregation. Her research interests include texts of status reversal, the social context of the early Jesus movement, gender and sexuality norms both ancient and modern, and ethical interpretation of the biblical text. Her newest book, entitled Songs of Resistance: The Bible’s Voices of Victory, Peace, and Protest, will explore musical and poetic passages in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, in both scholarship and contemporary experience. It will include a study guide to help groups explore how this legacy of community, music, and activism carries on today, and is forthcoming from Abingdon Press (2026).
Mark Miller, FHS
Mark Miller believes that everyone is a child of God and that music is instrumental in healing the world. He adheres to Cornel West’s belief that “[j]ustice is what love looks like in public,” and he daily lives out his conviction that music, social justice, and the beloved community are inextricably tied.
Since 2006 he has been a Lecturer in Sacred Music at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music and Divinity School. Mark is Professor of Church Music, Director of Chapel, and Composer In Residence at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, and is the Minister of Music of Christ Church (UCC & Am Baptist) in Summit, New Jersey.
Mark’s hymns and anthems are sung by communities of faith throughout the world and are published by GIA, Choristers Guild, Hal Leonard, Hinshaw, Abingdon Press, Santa Barbara Music Publishing and others. Mark’s popular compositions for pipe organ are published by GIA and MorningStar. He spends a portion of the year traveling the country, leading worship and workshops, preaching and presenting concerts focused on creating community and advocating for social justice. Overseas he has led choirs and performed in Sweden, South Africa, Austria, Russia, and the Baltic states.
Mark was made a Fellow of the Hymn Society in 2024.
Jim Mitulski
Rev. Dr. Jim Mitulski is pastor of Congregational Church of the Peninsula in Belmont, California, and a resident of Oakland, California. He has been a pastor in both the Metropolitan Community Churches (the historically queer/LGBTQ Church) and the United Church of Christ for over 40 years. He is a founding board member of both the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network, and the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion at Pacific School of Religion, and has helped gather the MCC archives there. He is a former program coordinator at the Hormel LGBT Collection at the San Francisco Public Library. He edited the MCC Hymnal (1989), an inclusive language resource used by grass roots queer religious communities around the world. His work has been profiled by historian Lynne Gerber at https://therevealer.org/aids-and-the-blessings-of-staying-the-ministry-of-reverend-jim-mitulski/.
Maria Monteiro
Originally from Recife, Brazil, Maria Monteiro serves as Lecturer in Church Music at Baylor University, and as music director at Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana (First Mexican Baptist Church) in San Antonio. Before joining the Baylor faculty in 2020, she taught for seventeen years at Baptist University of the Américas, also in San Antonio. Maria is interested in the important connection between academic perspectives in church music—past and present, local and global—and the musical life of present-day congregations. She holds Master of Music (1991) and Bachelor of Music (1987) degrees in Music History and Literature from Baylor University, a certificate of graduate studies in Musicology from Duke University (1998), and a Ph.D. in Church Music (2021) from Baylor.
Edward Moran
Presbyterian elder, author of hymn texts, including several published in Songs for the Holy Other.
Nathan Myrick
Nathan Myrick is an ethnomusicologist and theological ethicist. He is fascinated by the ways that musical activity forms and frames human relationships, and studies how music facilitates human flourishing in religious and quasi-religious communities. He is the author of Music for Others: Care, Justice, and Relational Ethics in Christian Music (Oxford University Press), the co-editor of Ethics and Christian Musicking (Routledge) and co-editor of a Festschrift in honor of David W. Music, The Gift of Music: Essays on Church Music and Hymnology (MorningStar). He has also authored “Music and Human Flourishing in Christian Communities” for The Oxford Handbook of Community Singing, as well as “Ethics and Justice” in The Oxford Handbook of Music and Christian Theology.
Other work has been published in The Yale Journal of Music and Religion, Liturgy, The Hymn, Bloomsbury Academic, UMC Discipleship, and HM Magazine, among others. He is currently writing a book about the failure of authenticity as a moral guide, entitled Beat Me Out of Me, and is the co-Principle Investigator of the post-Christian hardcore community that revolves around Furnace Fest, in Birmingham, Alabama.
Gerardo Oberman
Composer, poet, and pastor in the Reformed Churches of Argentina. He is a founding member of the Crearte Network in 2004 and has served as its coordinator from the beginning. He also works as a historian of the Reformed Churches in Argentina and Dutch migration in the region. He is part of several international liturgical committees. His interest in liturgical renewal has led to an active collaborative journey with various institutions and churches around the world.
William Pasch
Lydia Pedersen
Adam Perez
Adam A. Perez earned a doctor of theology in liturgical studies with a secondary area in religion and the arts from Duke University Divinity School. He holds a B.A. in music education from Trinity Christian College (Palos Heights, Illinois) and a master of arts in religion and music from Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School (New Haven, Connecticut). After finishing his Th.D., he served as a postdoctoral associate and as music and arts consultant to Goodson Chapel at Duke Divinity School.
A euphonium player by trade, Dr. Perez has served in various worship and music contexts spanning a wide variety of traditions as planner and leader; Adam has served in choral settings as a conductor and tenor and as a guitar-wielding contemporary worship leader. Dr. Perez also hosts the podcast The Worship Nerds that connects worship leaders with worship scholarship.
As a historian, Dr. Perez’s research is focused on the development of praise and worship theology and music, especially its transmission beyond Pentecostal and Charismatic communities and into global mainstream practice. His scholarly work has appeared in the journals Liturgy, Religions, The Hymn, The Journal of the Society for American Popular Music, Reformed Journal, and Christian Scholar’s Review, among other places. He is a contributing author to the following volumes: the Oxford Handbook on Music and Christian Theology (forthcoming), the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Liturgical Theology (forthcoming), Flow: The Ancient Way to Do Contemporary Worship (Abingdon, 2020), and Essays on the History of Contemporary Praise and Worship (Pickwick, 2021). His current collaborative research project on worship leaders and the worship music industry can be found at www.worshipleaderresearch.com.
Iteke Prins
Iteke Prins is a long-time member of The Hymn Society, who has composed hundreds of new hymn tunes, many of which are published by The Leupold Foundation or its successor, Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc.
Peter Rehwaldt
Rev. Peter Rehwaldt, Ph.D. is an ELCA interim pastor, hymnologist, and former HSUSC Director of Research, living in the Metro Kansas City area. His doctoral work focused on a multigenerational understanding of liturgy, hymnody, and preaching. At past HSUSC conferences, he has offered various sectionals, crafted and led Morning Prayer, and presented a plenary address on what Dr. Seuss would sing. As an interim pastor, Peter has used hymns extensively to help congregations in transition explore themselves and their mission, heal from past divisions and conflicts, and embrace the power of good-news-centered song that strengthens and supports them in their ministry.
William Bradley Roberts
The Rev. William Bradley Roberts, DMA (b. 1947) is Professor Emeritus of Church Music and Director of Chapel Music at Virginia Theological Seminary in suburban Washington, D.C. He came to Virginia Seminary after serving for five years as Director of Music Ministry at St. John’s, Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C. Prior to that he was in similar Episcopal music positions at St. Philips in the Hills, Tucson, Arizona, and St. Andrews, Louisville, Kentucky, and St. James, Newport Beach, California. While in the Los Angeles area, Dr. Roberts sang with the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Roberts is active in the work of the Episcopal Church, having served as Chairs of both the Standing Commission on Church Music and the Leadership Program for Musicians Serving Small Congregations (LPM). He is a frequent leader of workshops and conferences in the areas of choral techniques and repertoire, meditating with icons, and working with children’s choir. He did sabbatical study with Alice Parker and at the French monasteries of Taizé and Solesmes. In addition to Selah he is also published with Augsburg-Fortress, MorningStar, Paraclete, St. James Music Press, and Church Publishing. He is the founding conductor of the professional choral ensemble Vox Humana Richmond.
Yuri Rodríguez
The Rev. Yuriria (Yuri) Rodríguez-Laureani serves as a curate at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in the Diocese of Indianapolis. She was recently ordained to the priesthood after completing the Master’s in Divinity program at the School of Theology, Sewanee: The University of the South. She is a native Costa Rican singer, artist, and educator specializing in Latin American music, culture, liturgy and theology.
David Schaap
David Schaap (pronounced skaap [rhymes with top]) is president and founder of Selah Publishing Co. His undergraduate studies were at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with a double major in music (composition and arranging) and art (sculpture). Schaap has led workshops, hymn festivals, and reading sessions for national meetings of The Hymn Society, the American Guild of Organists, the Association of Anglican Musicians, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, and National Association of Pastoral Musicians, as well as for many regional events. He is also currently organist/choirmaster at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Carol Scott
Carol Scott has served as an organist and choir director in several denominations since 1990. In 2000 she earned a Master’s Degree in Theological Studies from Associated Mennonite Theological Seminaries in Elkhart, Indiana. She is currently the organist and choir director at Hamilton Union Presbyterian Church in Guilderland, New York.
David Sims
David Sims is the Senior Music Editor at Augsburg Fortress, where he directs the development and production of choral, instrumental, and assembly song resources. From 2014 to 2021 he served as Cantor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis, where he played organ, assisted in worship planning, and directed two adult choirs. He previously worked as an organ builder and church musician in Indiana. David grew up in the cornfields of central Illinois and holds degrees in Church Music and Organ Performance from St. Olaf College and Indiana University. His compositions are published by Augsburg Fortress and GIA.
Kathryn Smith
Kathryn has always had a love of singing, nurtured by singing hymns in church and being a part of several singing groups. She has been a member of Inshallah since 2011, and now serves as the Administrative Assistant of the Kanata Centre for Worship and Global Song. Kathryn is the project coordinator and copyright researcher of the Sing the Journey Deep songbook committee. She enjoys the attention to detail required when researching copyright details and appreciates the opportunity this has provided in building relationships with songwriters from a variety of backgrounds.
Kathryn hold an MA in Theology from Martin Luther University College, with an emphasis on congregational song. She can see the influence of The Hymn Society on her education with instructors including Debbie Lou Ludolph, Hilary Donaldson, and Margaret Leask.
Tracy Pratt Stuchbery
In her 30+ year career as a freelance pianist, singer, choral conductor, teacher, and church musician, Tracy Pratt Stuchbery has served Anglican parishes in Richmond, Squamish, and Penticton in the beautiful province of British Columbia. She has worked with the Vancouver Children’s Choir, founded and directed the St. John’s Children’s Chorus, was the director of Musaic Vocal Ensemble in Summerland, British Columbia, and artistic director of the Penticton Academy of Music. In 2021 she was “sent” from the Living School (a 2-year program of study of the Christian Contemplative tradition) of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is the mother of three grown children and has two grandsons. Tracy lives with her husband, Mike, in the Rectory of St. Philip’s Anglican Church in Etobicoke, Ontario, where she currently serves as music director, and where her husband is the Incumbent. They share the Rectory with a mother and child from Kenya and a man from Uganda, all of whom arrived in Canada as refugees. St. Philip’s has recently welcomed many asylum seekers, mainly from African countries, into the community and together, we are singing a new song.
Andreas Teich
Andreas is retired pastor in the ELCA. He received his BA from Muhlenberg College in 1982 and his MDiv from the Lutheran School of Theology in 1986. A member of The Hymn Society since that time, Andreas has presented two hymn festivals, written for The Hymn and led a sectional on his research for the 25th anniversary of the Lovelace Scholarships.
Lindy Thompson
Lindy Thompson is a lyricist and poet who collaborates regularly with Mark Miller, FHS, as well as other brilliantly-talented members of The Hymn Society. She is a lay member of Christ UMC in Franklin, Tennessee, where she lives with her family. She currently writes a column for The Hymn and a weekly devotion for the Fellowship of Worship Arts. She posts her work at lindythompson.com.
Adam M. L. Tice, FHS
Adam M. L. Tice, FHS, is GIA Publications’ Editor for Congregational Song. In that capacity he curates the Unbound platform, regularly making new hymns and tunes available for download. He was text editor for the 2020 Mennonite Hymnal, Voices Together, and his own texts have appeared in numerous recently published hymnals.
Horacio Vivares
National Music Teacher with a specialization in Guitar, and later as an Orchestra Conductor with a specialization in Chamber and Symphonic Music. He has actively participated in various ecumenical projects with organizations such as the Latin American Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches, the Theological Community of Mexico, and Baptists for Peace, among others. He is a founding member of the Crearte Network, where he works actively on the process of liturgical renewal. He is a composer of numerous songs published in various hymnals and songbooks worldwide. Additionally, he serves as an arranger and music producer, as well as the Director of Youth Orchestras in the Province of Buenos Aires and the Director of a Music School in the Public Education system in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
Kate Williams
Kate Williams is the Vice President of Sacred Music at GIA Publications, Inc. Kate is the editor of Gather—Fourth Edition, the latest edition of the nation’s most well-known hard-bound hymnal, as well as the editor of Of Womb and Tomb: Prayer in Time of Infertility, Miscarriage, and Stillbirth. Most recently, Kate was a co-editor of The Fire This Time: A Black Catholic Sourcebook.
Laurie Zant
Laurie Zant has been singing and accompanying on the guitar since childhood. She started exploring Latin American worship music while living in Chile in the early 1990s and has been planning and leading Spanish and bilingual liturgical music ever since. A retired software solutions architect, Laurie lives much of the time in Denver, Colorado, and sings in the choir at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. The rest of the year she and her husband live in southern Chile.