St. James’s Church, Richmond |
Washington National Cathedral has announced that the Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, rector of St. James’s Church in Richmond, will become its next dean in August.
Michelle Boorstein and Julie Zauzmer write for The Washington Post:
“I think I had my first experience of the holy standing in the nave of the cathedral,” he told The Washington Post. “The deep awe and mystery of the divine — I remember it being a very powerful moment.”
Hollerith says he won’t enter the position with plans to focus on specific social justice issues, a contrast to Hall, who was on the national news within a few months after coming in August 2012 by announcing that he’d open the cathedral to same-sex weddings.
“I’m not an issue-driven person. I’m a gospel-driven person,” he said. “Of course, the gospel at times is prophetic and has things to say to the world. But I don’t approach things from the point of view of hot-button issues, so to speak.”
Ali Rockett writes for the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
“I don’t think you can immerse yourself in a community and its people for 16 years and not grieve to leave it,” said Hollerith, 52. “As a member of the clergy, we feel called to something, but we don’t feel called from something. I feel called to Washington, but I’m not called from Richmond.”
… Hollerith is a graduate of Yale Divinity School, after which he served as assistant rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, and rector at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Savannah, Ga., before coming to St. James’s in 2000.
“While a significant loss to our parish, we know that Randy Hollerith will serve God and his church faithfully and skillfully in his new role as parish priest to all Episcopalians in the nation’s capital,” said Peggy Crowley, the senior warden at St. James’s.
