MISSION & LITURGY MINISTRY
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Redeemer Family,
I’m writing to you today with exciting news! I’m thrilled to announce that the Reverend Melanie Slane will be joining the ministry team of Church of the Redeemer as our new Associate for Mission & Liturgy. Melanie and her family will be moving here from St. Louis, Missouri, and her first Sunday worshiping with us will be the First Week of Advent, December 2
nd
.
Melanie brings great passion, thoughtfulness, and experience to her work, and will be an impactful new member of our leadership. She comes to Redeemer with extensive experience in planning liturgies and organizing ministry teams, and has been instrumental in innovative, authentic, and transformative Mission & Outreach work throughout her ordained ministry. Melanie’s intelligence is matched by her warmth and generosity of spirit; she is an excellent preacher, and an engaging presence, and I am honored to be able to call her a colleague.
I want to thank the parishioners and staff who took time to interview our candidates for this position. To Lee Hardy, Mark Bass, Bill Culp, Amy Harris, Tom Kirkwood, Christine Andrew; Vestry members: Beth Weinewuth and Megan Hughes Johnson; Wardens: Charles Fellows and Emily von Allmen; our Deacon the Rev. Gary Lubin; the Revs. Joyce Keeshin and Mitchell Bojarski; and Anny Stevens-Gleason. Your input was essential in the decision-making process, and your enthusiasm for Melanie and recognition of her gifts helped me to hear the Holy Spirit’s call so clearly. Thank you for your great service to your church.
I’ll leave you with a greeting from Melanie herself, but first let me say that I cannot wait for you to meet her in person. The next chapter of the life of Redeemer is coming into sharper focus every day as we seek to go deeper spiritually and reach further into our neighborhood. We seek to
Know Jesus
and to
Grow in Love
. Melanie’s voice and guidance will be a significant part of how we do that.
Your friend and brother in Christ Jesus,
-The Rev. Philip H. DeVaul,
Rector
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THE REV. MELANIE SLANE
ASSOCIATE FOR MISSION & LITURGY
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Dear Redeemerites,
I am overjoyed at the opportunity to serve among you as pastor, priest, teacher, and friend beginning this December, as I join the Redeemer staff as Associate for Mission and Liturgy. On the surface one may think that these two things do not “go together,” but truly, they do!
Our Christian response is made manifest in two great commandments, Love God, and Love Neighbor. Liturgy, as it turns out, is our expression of our love for God, and mission, mission is how we show love to our neighbor. Together, with you, I hope to engage these two expressions of our faith that allow us to proclaim our Christian identity in a world that seriously needs some good Christians around.
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I am so excited to get to know all of you and hear the stories of your lives too! I am a native Midwesterner with a nomadic heart and my family and I look forward to making Cincinnati our home while exploring with all of you the fringes and margins of our city, the kinds of places where Jesus would hang out.
My husband Chris is also an Episcopal priest, and together, we have two amazing kids, Constantine who is three, and Aristotle, who is one. The boys go by “Teil,” pronounced like the color, and “Arlo,” pronounced like the Guthrie. Together, we enjoy adventure and good food, and an occasional family nap, which we call “The peace which passeth all understanding.”
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I spent most of my life in St. Louis, but the cumulative decade that I spent away taught me a lot about God and God’s people from all walks of life. I love to preach and look forward to sharing the stories of my encounters with God with all of you.
Sincerely,
The Rev. Melanie W. J. Slane
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