Rejoice! St. Martin's has called a
New Rector
Dear St. Martin's,

I am pleased to announce on behalf of the 2017 Vestry that we have called The Rev. Dr. Pamela Dolan to be our new Rector. Pamela was elected by the unanimous consensus of your 2017 Vestry, and is well qualified to lead us into a new era at St. Martin’s spiritually.  She comes with a keen ability to help us deepen and expand our ministries for social justice, youth and children, and Christian formation, among other things.  Though originally from Vacaville, Pamela leaves a rectorate at The Church of the Good Shepherd in St. Louis, Missouri, and will be coming with her two daughters Anabel and Kathleen, her husband John, and their two dogs Abbey and Spike.

I genuinely believe that the Holy Spirit, working among us, drew us to call Pamela. Though there are many reasons to feel excited for her tenure here, the overwhelming sense of the Vestry was how joyful, engaged, and nurturing she is.  Her ministries and her faith journey align with the work we have done and continue to do in the world at St. Martin’s, and her reverence for the sacred and divine is aptly apparent in all that she does, from simple meals to her preaching style.  The love of Christ truly resides in the very fabric of her being, and we are excited to know her. Pamela is also well educated, and has extensive applied experience we believe will be an asset to St. Martin’s for years to come.  

Your 2017 Vestry is pleased Pamela and her family discerned a similar calling to come to Davis, and has accepted our offer.  With that, please see her own introductory remarks.

Heather Baugh, 
Senior Warden

July 14, 2017

  Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
--Mary Oliver, “The Summer Day”  

Dear St. Martin’s,  

I am delighted to have this opportunity to introduce myself to you.  

This process of discernment that I have been walking with the members of the Applicant Review Committee and the Vestry has been an enriching and enlightening one for me. Mary Oliver’s question about what to do with our “one wild and precious life” gets to the heart of discernment, which I believe is a lifelong journey of discovering again and again who God created us to be and how best, at any given season, to use the gifts we have received for the good of others and the flourishing of Creation.  

Initially what drew me to St. Martin’s was your obvious passion for social justice, especially around environmental issues, and your wish to go deeper in terms of your connection with God and one another. Then throughout the process and especially during my visit I found so much more, including a strong sense of community, fearless creativity, and an authentic desire to be challenged and transformed. These are tremendous gifts indeed!  

I am eager to get to know you better and to begin our relationship in September. As you can see in my biographical blurb, I spent part of my childhood in Vacaville, so this is a kind of homecoming for me (even more so because my mother, stepmother, and brother all graduated from UC Davis). My husband John and our daughter Kathleen are looking forward to life in a great college town; our older daughter Annabel starts her sophomore year at the University of Kansas this fall, but I’m sure that you’ll get to know her in due time.  

Please keep us all in your prayers these next few weeks as I will keep you in mine.

Faithfully,  

Pamela+
  Bio
The Rev. Dr. Pamela Dolan has served as rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Town and Country, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, since late 2011. She spent her childhood in Vacaville, Micronesia, and Hawaii, and has also lived in Connecticut, Seattle, and even Scotland. Pamela graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in English (Phi Beta Kappa) and has a master's degree in theology from Harvard Divinity School. She also spent several years working on a doctorate in medieval literature at New York University, although she did not complete the degree. Her D.Min. is from Sewanee and included a doctoral thesis on gardening as a spiritual practice.

Pamela recently started a Farm Church called the Community of St. Brigid and is a founding member of Cultivate: the Episcopal Food Movement. Her columns on religion and current events are regularly featured in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She is a popular retreat leader and speaker in the Diocese of Missouri and was a Director of Christian Formation in two different parishes before her ordination to the priesthood in 2010. She has also trained as a labyrinth facilitator, a Godly Play teacher, and a leader in Asset-Based Community Development. Pamela’s concern for social justice has led to her involvement with advocacy on behalf of such groups as RESULTS and Interfaith Power and Light, who recently sent her to Washington, DC to lobby members of Congress about climate change. While there she also attended the Native Nations Rise March on Washington against the Dakota Access Pipeline. In August Pamela will be leading a conference in Tanzania for Anglican priests in the Diocese of Mpwapwa on the intersection of food justice, sustainability, and faith.