Emmanuel Church, Virginia Beach
(downtown Kempsville) 1984-1996

At my interivew with the vestry and the Rev. Michael Vermillion to be their first parish assistant priest I was asked. "How do you feel about the exchange of the Lord's Peace?"

"I'm good, but not promiscuous" was the answer that came out. Father Mike said that that sealed the deal. He and I fashioned a partnership along with the lay staff that others only write about. He was killed on my 44th birthday on July 18, 1987. With the advice and consent of the Diocesan the vestry elected me rector. I served for nine more years which included building a new church which required moving the grave of a civil war veteran. The parish has gone on to greater things and built a new parish hall and Day School wing in 2002. Debby and I were married there by the Bishop on November 28, 1986 with our four children in attendance.

I often said that I was to be the interim between Father Mike and his successor. Actually I was both. It was during that 12 years that my vocation as an interim took fuller force.

The existing church had a serious fire in 1943. On July 18, 1943 it was rededicated at the very minute my mother gave birth to me in Boston. It was 100 years from the time of the founding of the parish. That year also saw the founding of Emmanuel Church, Athens which I served from 2000-2005.