Adapted from the Office of Public Affairs (Spellers, Holley)
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has called the Rev. Stephanie Spellers as canon to the presiding bishop for evangelism and reconciliation, beginning with the new year.
In another appointment effective with the new year, Bishop Curry has chosen Tara Elgin Holley as the Episcopal Church’s director of development.
“Her work will involve helping to spread the good news of Jesus to the church and through the church to the world,” Bishop Curry said.
“There’s no better time than this to be in the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement,” Spellers said. “So many of us are ready to partner, risk, heal and celebrate the good news in our neighborhoods. So many of us are hungry to fall more deeply in love with Jesus and to create spaces where different people can grow in that love, too. So many of us are yearning to follow Jesus beyond fear, beyond comfort and beyond the walls keeping us from each other and from our neighbors. I can’t wait to commit my whole heart and energy to this Spirit work with our whole church.”
Spellers is a faculty member and director of mission and reconciliation at General Theological Seminary in New York. She is senior consultant and director of new ministry development at the Center for Progressive Renewal. She serves as a consultant for various church organizations and as an editor at Church Publishing.
Previously she was canon for mission vitality for the Diocese of Long Island and a member of the chaplain team for the House of Bishops. She served as the co-chair of the Standing Commission on Mission and Evangelism (2009-12). Spellers was founding priest of The Crossing at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston. Before ordination she worked at Harvard Divinity School and as a religion reporter.
She is the author of several books, articles, and resources focused on embracing emerging cultures and Episcopal traditions, including Radical Welcome and the Episcopal Way (with Eric Law). She is a former Episcopal Church Foundation fellow.
Tara Elgin Holley
Holley will lead the church’s Development Office on all projects, including:
- Rebuilding churches and institutions of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti
- Securing the ministry of Navajoland
- Completing construction of a new Archives of the Episcopal Church
“I am particularly thrilled to be a part of and supportive of the new vision that Presiding Bishop Curry has shared,” Holley said. “There are so many opportunities for the Episcopal Church to do important work throughout the Church.”
Holley is vice president for institutional advancement at Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, a post she has held since 2009.
Before that she was senior campaign counsel for Custom Development Solutions; director of corporate and foundation relations at George Washington University; and director of development and public relations for the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
