Rector, Church of the Advent, Boston, Massachusetts
Posted February 16, 2024
Rector, Church of the Advent, Boston
Dear Potential Rector of the Church of the Advent,
The Church of the Advent, in Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts, is now receiving applications for the position of Rector. Applications are due by the end of business on Monday, March 18, 2024, and can be submitted to our Search Administrator by following the instructions on this, our Rector Search, webpage. We encourage you to learn about our parish by exploring our website, our social media accounts (to which links are provided from this page), and our Parish Profile compiled for our recently completed Rector search process in 2019.
The Church of the Advent is finally concluding what we are describing as a five-year interim period. On Epiphany, 2019, our much-beloved Rector of twenty years, Fr. Allan Warren, retired, leaving a thriving and vibrant Parish to search for her next Rector. A year later, Fr. Douglas Anderson took up that position. Shortly thereafter, Covid arrived, and amidst the national health emergency and restrictions placed on worship and gathering by the Diocese of Massachusetts, the first two years of his rectorate were substantially disrupted. Then, at the end of 2021, a clergy disciplinary matter (i.e., a Title IV complaint) from Fr. Anderson’s former posting arose, which resulted in his being suspended from ministry at the Advent by our Diocesan Bishop pending the resolution of this complaint.
At the end of January 2024, the Diocese of Massachusetts and Fr. Anderson reached an Accord to conclude this disciplinary process, which had amongst its terms that Fr. Anderson would resign as Rector of the Church of the Advent. Please read what we wrote to the Parish about the conclusion of this matter, and its implications for our future Parish life, here.
Despite these five years of uncertainty, the Church of the Advent continues to thrive. During this time, we have been greatly blessed by the steady presence and able leadership of Fr. Jay James, who has been our Assisting Rector and a consistent interim presence throughout this period, first during our initial search process and again during these past two years, and thus consistency in worship and Parish life has been fully maintained. The Parish today is largely as we describe it in our 2019 Parish Profile: a young, intellectual, active, and faithful witness to the orthodox catholic tradition within the Episcopal Church and the broader Anglican Communion. The strengths and challenges, financial resources, patterns of worship and service, and numbers of worshippers and members presented there continue to provide an accurate portrayal of our Parish life. If anything, over these past five years, the persons in the pews have become on average younger, our Parish life has become more vibrant, and participation in our plethora of Parish ministries more active. With a Parish both larger and livelier than a generation ago, we joyfully defy the trends in our Diocese and in the Episcopal Church more broadly.
If, having learned about our Parish, and having prayerfully and intentionally discerned that the Holy Ghost might be calling you to be our next Rector, we ask that you to complete our application materials, so that you and we might then proceed to discern together whether our Lord is calling you to be the next Rector of the Church of the Advent.
Yours in Christ,
Meg Nelson & Thatcher Gearhart
Churchwardens
Website:
https://theadventboston.org/
Further information:
https://theadventboston.org/rector-search/
Letter from the Wardens:
https://theadventboston.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Letter-From-The-Wardens.pdf
Parish Profile:
https://theadventboston.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-Parish-Profile-6.pdf
How to Apply:
https://theadventboston.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/How-to-Apply.pdf