Dear People of Trinity Church,
I am thrilled to accept the call to serve as your Priest-in-Charge, and I look forward to joining you in June. My first Sunday will be Trinity Sunday, June 7. I will be joined in Asbury Park by my husband, Giuliano Argenziano.
Giuliano and I are drawn to Trinity’s role as a center of community in Asbury Park, particularly its commitment to social justice. As we observed economic disparities in town and learned about the history of racial division, we felt a calling to join Trinity’s efforts to serve the community. As newcomers who will benefit from the revitalization of commerce and culture, we want to make sure everyone has the chance to benefit from the improvements in the quality of life along this portion of the Shore. When I visited Saturday Soup and joined guests and volunteers for lunch, that was one of the moments in this process when I knew this was where I was supposed to be.
I was also drawn to the vibrancy of spiritual life at Trinity. You strive for excellence and creativity in liturgy, music, and the arts, and you value programs for lifelong Christian formation. Some parishes emphasize social outreach over spirituality, and some the opposite, but it seems to me that you balance the two—as do I. As a priest, I seek to equip parishioners to see God's presence in their lives and in the world around them, to share the good news of Jesus Christ’s way of love, and to empower the Church to make a transformative impact in the world. I see a match between my passions in ministry and those of your parish, particularly your vision for unconditional love to be at the core of your identity. I admire that you have included scriptural words from the First Letter of John in your congregational vision statement; in fact, the Bible text that serves as the foundation of my faith and my ministry is “God is love.”
The vestry and the discernment committee expressed a hope for a priest who is both a chief executive—and chief spiritual—officer, and I intend to be just that. As Priest-in-Charge, I am fortunate to have the opportunity to partner with a fantastic group of lay leaders, and to supervise a talented and dedicated staff, as we all work together to lead this parish from strength to strength in spiritual vitality, social justice outreach, and congregational development.
I am coming to Trinity from Grace Church in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, where I serve as Associate Rector. During my almost five years at Grace, I have also served concurrently at Grace Church School as Early Childhood Chaplain and adjunct faculty member. Prior to Grace, I served churches in Brooklyn and Westchester County, and in the secular field I worked as a fundraiser for the International Rescue Committee and as a paralegal. I was ordained in 2011, and I graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary and Rice University.
