We are pleased to announce the call of two clergy to positions within the Diocese. The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews has been called as Vicar of St. Joseph-St. John, Lakewood and The Rev. Canon Robert R. Rhodes as Associate Rector to St. Paul, Seattle. Please join us in welcoming them to their new positions.
The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews
The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews began as Vicar of St. Joseph-St. John, Lakewood on September 17. He was ordained deacon in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast in December 2011. He graduated from General Seminary in May 2012 with a Masters in Divinity. He was ordained priest in San Francisco in December 2012. From September 2012 through December 2016 he served as the Working Group Head for Communications for the Diocese of California.
Joseph is a soccer referee, knitter, sewer, and Shape Note singer who loves musical theater. He and his husband Brandon, a sleep doctor, live in Seattle with their two cats Maggie and Stanton.
(Photo: Dani Scoville / Diocese of California)
The Rev. Canon Robert R. Rhodes
The Rev. Canon Robert R. Rhodes, most recently, Canon Missioner at Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati, has accepted a call to St. Paul, Seattle, as Associate Rector. His first Sunday at St. Paul’s will be October 22. Prior to serving on the cathedral staff, he served parishes in St. Louis, Louisiana, and Newark. He graduated in 2003 from General Seminary, where he and Mother Sara Fischer were classmates.
Father Rhodes’ passions include the deep structures of liturgy and how they relate to mission, intentional Christian communities, and understanding and rethinking our relationship to food and its production. He finds God’s presence in unexpected places – ordinary neighborhoods, coffee shops, street corners, and movie houses. He sees God’s hand in secular works and atheist philosophies. While committed to Anglican Christianity, he seeks out connections with other religious traditions, including that of non-Christians. His working class roots in St. Louis, Missouri, and his undergraduate work in fine arts taught him how to look closely and carefully for beauty and truth in the world around him.
At St. Paul’s, Father Rob will have primary responsibility for Adult Formation, for developing new (or renewed) weekday liturgical offerings, and for new initiatives that reach out to all of our neighbors. He will also share with the Rector in ministries of preaching and presiding, pastoral care, and support for this year’s vestry goals.
Rob’s wife, Debbi Rhodes, is a postulant for Holy Orders in the Diocese of Southern Ohio. She is beginning her first year as a seminarian in the low-residency M.Div. program of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.