Staff News – St. James’ Church

New Associate Rector appointed

Marisa Curcio — Sun, 18 Feb 2024 06:00:17 +0000

Dear friends,

I want to share with you the very happy news that The Rev. Matthew Oprendek will join our staff as Associate Rector. He will begin his ministry with us on Palm Sunday, March 24. Matt brings a depth of priestly experience, having served in the context of parish ministry and on a diocesan staff. For the past 8 years, he has been Priest-in-Charge at St. James Church, Fordham. His educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Baylor University, a law degree from the University of Texas, and a Master of Divinity from the General Theological Seminary.

After the search committee and I met with Matt, it was clear that we would be blessed by the gifts he brings to ministry. I’ve known Matt these past 6 years as a trusted colleague in the Diocese of New York, and I am delighted that we will have the opportunity to serve the Gospel of Jesus Christ together at St. James’. He will have responsibility for shepherding our adult formation opportunities, ministry with newcomers, and our worship life.

Please join me in giving thanks to God for Matt’s call to serve with us. Matt and his husband, Eric, already call Manhattan home, but keep them in your prayers as they settle into this new chapter with us.

Thank you for all the ways you continue to support St. James’ Church! This is a season of renewal and hope in our shared life.

Yours in Christ,
Zack

A note from the Rev. Matthew Oprendek

Dear Sisters and Brothers of St. James’ Church,

I am delighted to share the news (at long last) that I have embraced with enthusiasm the call to serve at St. James’ Church.

I already know some of you from our shared ministry at St. James Fordham’s Food Pantry. I met many of you when I facilitated the parish-wide conversation at the beginning of St. James’ rector search. Also, St. James’ Church hosted several “continuing education” opportunities for priests from around the country, and I’ve been honored to participate in those times of learning on the St. James’ campus with many friends and colleagues, including my dear friend Zack. In some ways, I almost feel like I’ve been a part-time member of St. James’!

I’ll never forget thinking to myself after your parish-wide conversation, “What an extraordinary church!” As I’ve met with the search committee, wardens, and with Zack, I kept hearing myself say, “I would love to spend more time with these amazing people!” And now, to announce that I will be joining you in order to do the kind of ministry I truly love to do — the lyrics from a Georgia Mass Choir song seem to capture my thoughts, even in this lenten season: “Joy, joy, God’s great joy/ Joy, joy, down in my soul/ Sweet, beautiful, soul-saving joy/ oh, joy, joy in my soul!”

I look forward to sharing God’s great joy with you as we love and serve together in the coming days and years.

Yours,
Matt+

Director of Music appointed

Marisa Curcio — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 07:00:07 +0000

Dear friends,

I am delighted to announce that Dr. Kenneth Miller will serve as the next Director of Music and Organist of St. James’ Church beginning July 1, 2024.

The Music Search Committee, our choirs, staff, and I discovered in Ken one of the most gifted musicians in the Episcopal Church. Currently serving as Associate Professor of Church Music at the University of the South (Sewanee), Ken serves as Organist and Director of Choirs for the School of Theology’s Chapel of the Apostles. Prior to his time at Sewanee, Ken served as Associate Organist-Choirmaster at St. Philip’s Cathedral in Atlanta and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia, South Carolina, and as Instructor of Organ at the University of South Carolina. He holds a bachelor’s degree in organ and church music from Lenoir-Rhyne University, where his principal teachers were Florence Jowers and Paul Weber, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, where he studied with Martin Jean and Thomas Murray.

With Ken’s gifts, we will continue to offer dignified liturgy with excellent music that has the power to reveal the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One renowned church musician had this to say about Ken: “I have worked with incredibly smart people throughout my career and with excellent musicians. Ken is the smartest person I know and the finest musician.” You can listen to him play here, and listen to one of his compositions here. During a recent visit to St. James’, Ken demonstrated his remarkable gifts with each one of our choirs: from the Cherub and Primary Choirs to the Canterbury and Compostela Choirs.

The Music Search Committee, under the leadership of David Andryc, began work in the summer and completed a herculean effort to bring us to this exciting announcement. Please join me in thanking committee members David, Alexandra Bacon, Karmen Kaufmann, Sarah Reid, Maddie Rice, and Bruce Saylor.

Ken will complete his final term at Sewanee this spring and move to the city this summer. With our celebration of Davis’ remarkable ministry on January 7, 2024, we have identified an interim Director of Music who will serve as our principal organist and direct the adult choirs. Our interim will begin on January 16, and I am excited to introduce him in the coming weeks.

Our calling of Ken to serve with us marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the music ministry at St. James’ Church. Pray for Ken as he prepares to join our mission of sharing the love of Jesus Christ with each other, our city, and the world.

Yours in Christ,

Zack Thompson

A note from Kenneth Miller

Dear St. James’ Church,

I am delighted and humbled that you have called me as your next Director of Music and Organist, and I am excited to begin my work with and among you soon! Making music is at the heart of what it is to follow Christ—Jesus sang with his disciples; the early church sang psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; even the morning stars sang together when the world was created—and I am excited to help lead your music by conducting choirs of children and adults, and by encouraging congregational singing from the organ bench.

Throughout the hiring process, not only have the rector, the Music Search Committee, and the choirs of St. James’ been warm and welcoming to me, but they have been enthusiastic about St. James’ mission and its future. God is up to wonderful things at St. James’, and I’m glad I will soon be a part of them. I look forward to getting to know you and making music with all of you for years to come.

Ken

New Associate Rector called

Marisa Curcio — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 16:00:24 +0000

A note from the Rev. Marisa Sifontes

Hello, St. James’!

It is with great joy that I look forward to serving as your Associate Rector beginning this Fall. I give thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit for our paths crossing at this time.

As Zack mentioned, I was born and raised in Buffalo. While I grew up spending many summers and holidays visiting family in the Bronx, the path of life has taken me south for many years. Coupled with proximity to friends and family who continue to call New York City home, I have a lot to look forward to as I make my way back to the Northeast, and my long neglected snow boots are looking forward to the return.

We are a family of three and a half. My oldest son, Cole, is entering his final year at Amherst College, where he is completing a dual major in Asian Civilizations and Cultures and English. His brother, Max, is getting ready to start his second year at Tufts University, where he is studying Astrophysics. And Lincoln, our pug, does his best to keep us all in line.

All of us are excited about the move to New York City and what it entails. Max and I, especially, can’t wait to sample all the gluten free goodies there.

My continued thanks to Zack, to the Executive Committee, and to all those who’ve shared what a wonderful place St. James’ is. We appreciate all the assistance to everyone helping ensure our transition is a smooth one.

One thing was resoundingly clear during my talks with everyone at St. James’ — this is a place where good things are happening. Your sense of mission and purpose in living into the Gospel and carrying out its work are palpable. And I can’t wait to join you.

See you soon.

Peace and blessings,

Marisa+

A Letter from Davis Wortman

Marisa Curcio — Wed, 24 May 2023 21:01:39 +0000

Dear Friends,

With the excitement of change in the air at St. James’, this is the right moment to announce future plans of my own. Dean and I have long anticipated retiring to Florida, and now we’ve set a date. After 23+ wonderful years at St. James’, the Sunday after the Feast of the Epiphany, January 7, 2024, will be our last Sunday here. It is no accident that I have chosen to make this significant day of worship my final day of work, as the meaning of the Epiphany encompasses both a blessed revelation of the incarnation of Jesus and a classic moment of sudden insight. This insight came to me as the rector search was gaining speed to its conclusion and well before Zack’s call had been announced. Dean’s and my plans have been in motion for several years. I realized that after offering 23 years of joyful, sorrowful, dutiful, delightful, and uplifting music for worship, it is time for the church to benefit from fresh vision, not only from the new Rector, but from a new minister of music. I couldn’t be happier with Zack’s appointment, yet this is right timing to herald the next generation of worship through music along with the rest of the vision I am excited to see Zack carry out.

In my time here you fed my soul by singing hymns in worship and Christmas caroling on the steps, in your listening with rapt attention to anthems, choral moments and organ fantasies, and so often asking me if we could sing favorite hymns and tunes at your weddings, funerals, or the summer hymn sings. You love music, and you let me know it every week. I thank and love you for that!

My St. James’ history started with my arrival in 2000 as the Master Plan saw us worshiping away from 71st and Madison Avenue. I was here for the tragedy of 9/11, had the glory of designing and installing the Bicentennial Organ in 2010, saw the return to Choral Eucharist at 11:15 liturgies in 2013, began the Candlelight Communion service with its distinctive use of piano, instrumentalists, and cantor, underwent the trial by fire of producing music for every service livestreamed during COVID, and then celebrated the return of full and glorious musical worship in this season just completing. Many will not be aware of the release of two music recordings from St. James’ Church (one of which received a Grammy nomination), my encouraging countless youth who sang and fell in love with spiritually-based music, the professional choristers who, with my encouragement, joined the church as worshiping members because of the richness of Spirit they discovered here. Of all that has had the most personal impact, it was meeting by chance a fellow musician whom I hired (with trepidation!) and yet eventually married, Dean Meyers. He joined me wholeheartedly every way at St. James’, making it his spiritual and religious home, and generously sharing his gifts as a musician and creative artist of other talents and his business and professional abilities, all for the well-being of the church and reflecting his personal devotion to this community. He joins me in the great mix of emotions, from gratitude to sadness to anticipation, as we prepare to relocate upon my retirement.

I am a church musician by calling, not just profession, and I hope that has been clear throughout my time at St. James’. My center and focus all these years have been on the worship through music, not of music or by music. I am not seeking another job as a musician in another church. There can be no greater fulfillment than what I have already achieved, through your acceptance and love for the music we have made at St. James’ in service to God. That love is a gift that will never leave me. It is my profound wish that, apart from having moments in the coming months to thank as many of you as I can individually, you will find your own moments of spiritual beauty in remembering what you have heard and felt from my efforts and bring that joy forward into worship.

This summer and fall I will help Zack to think through the music program going into the future. It will be a capstone of my professional life at St. James’ to aid him in any way he’d like—and we’ve already begun to talk.

Dean and I intend our leave-taking to be celebratory, and we’re already anticipating a festive reception between the services on January 7, 2024 to say farewell. In the meantime, we’re looking forward to Zack’s installation and every liturgy between now and then.

With thanks, love and wishes that music will continue to lift you closer to the throne of God, I am yours in Christ,

Davis Wortman

A note from the Rector — and a welcome to new staff

Marisa Curcio — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 17:58:13 +0000

Because by canon law, all staff at Episcopal parishes work for the Rector, we cannot hire permanent staff at this time. Those decisions will be made by the next Rector. However, because we will not have enough clergy at present to meet the program and pastoral needs of the parish, I am delighted to announce that two retired clergy will be joining us on a part-time basis for the coming months.

The Rev. Canon Petero Sabune is well-known to some at St. James’, as he was our first Vicar in the early years of my ministry. Having served as the Dean of the Cathedral in Newark, and several parishes within the Diocese of New York, he also had a distinguished ministry in prison chaplaincy. In retirement, he is serving part-time as priest-in-charge at the Church of Sts. John, Paul, and Clement in Yonkers, the parish where he began his ordained ministry. He will be with us on Wednesdays and Thursdays, assisting primarily with pastoral care and engaged in some teaching. He will also be with us occasionally at the 6 p.m. service on Sundays. Petero will join us on February 22.

The Rev. David Cobb has recently retired as the Director of Contextual Education at the School of Theology at Sewanee, TN. Although retired to Florida, he finds himself in New York during this time when his wife, Ruth, is serving as the Interim Director of Admissions at St. Thomas Choir School. Before teaching at Sewanee, David served as a parish priest for over three decades, in Alabama, Chicago, Baltimore and New Haven, Connecticut. He is the editor of the recent revision of St. Augustine’s Prayer Book, published by Forward Movement. David will join us beginning on Sunday, February 12 and will be with us on Sundays and Wednesdays, assisting with our worship services as well as with teaching and administration.

The Rev. Jay Sidebotham will continue in his part-time role overseeing Formation and assisting in our worship services. We are also blessed that Co’Relous Bryant and Calvin Bushman have both training and gifts as preachers, teachers and writers, and we look forward to celebrating and using their gifts in the coming months and years.