Rector Search is Completed

July 17, 2024

Dear People of St. Andrew’s,

What a joy to write this first communication to you as your newly elected rector. I know that your journey in transition between the close of Mother Mary White’s tenure and my call to join you has been a lengthy one. As your parish profile attests, all along that way your strong lay leaders, a skilled interim and committed Sunday clergy have all engaged you in deepened and expanded ministries in Christ’s name. I look forward to coming alongside you this September to take my share of Christ’s yoke with you in this ministry.

I told one of your vestry members I met in this discernment process that coming to St. Andrew’s is a bit of a Rip VanWinkle experience for me. I attended St. Andrew’s for 4 years in my early 20’s after graduating from SUNY. It was a very important community of faith for me, where I heard and tested God’s call on my life. St. Andrew’s helped in so many ways to launch me into seminary. That was over 35 years ago and now I feel I am waking up to St. Andrew’s again.  A few faces among you are familiar to me and the building is much the same, but it is obvious so much living and ministry has happened for all of us since then. What a gift to get reacquainted, and equally wonderful to meet new siblings in Christ and experience a different generation of the parish in that beautiful building

The outcome of my discernment conversations with our Lord Christ, my husband Marco, your Search Team and Vestry, Mother Elizabeth and Bishop Jeremiah, have given me a deep sense that God has been working in the circumstances that bring us together now. So many of the elements of your life and ministry described in your parish profile resonated with me – so many turns of phrase about your commitments left me saying “Oh yes, me too!” I so look forward to what we will discover together about how God wants to use our combined gifts for continuing St. Andrew’s ministry of love and justice in Christ’s name. And what a joy it is for me to be entering the Diocese of Albany again at a moment that speaks such promise for a new chapter!

I was happy to learn from your wardens that 40+ households and individuals in the parish have recently submitted one-page autobiographies with pictures, to be collected into a book about the parish. I really look forward to seeing that and referring to it often in my first months as I get to know you all. If you have not yet submitted a page, I hope you will consider taking a few moments between now and when I arrive to create one. I too will work on a page about me and my family and send it to you in an upcoming edition of your weekly newsletter.

Beloved in Christ (for that is what we all are) I will be there before we all know it, and I feel so grateful and honored to be called to serve with you at dear St. Andrew’s Church.

Faithfully and Joyfully,

Mother Martha Hubbard+