The Living Church Foundation elected four new members on October 23-24 at St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Harrods Creek, Kentucky, which the board’s secretary, the Rev. Clint Wilson, serves as rector.
The new foundation members are the Rev. Wesley Arning, associate rector at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston; the Rev. George Willcox (Will) Brown, rector of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Thomasville, Georgia; the Rev. Jean McCurdy Meade, a retired priest of the Diocese of Louisiana; and the Rev. Caleb Roberts, rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in El Dorado, Arkansas.
Arning leads the young adult ministry and small group initiatives at St. Martin’s, which has been the Episcopal Church’s largest congregation in recent years. He previously served as a rector in Tennessee, and is the author of a small group curriculum, Just for, and Waters of Baptism, a devotional book. During his ministry in Tennessee, he was ecumenical officer and president of the standing committee. He now serves as a trustee of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas.
Brown, a Georgia native, has been a Covenant contributor for nearly a decade. His first book, A Catechism of Nature, incorporates several of his Covenant essays about Christian faith and the natural world, and reflects his deep love of hunting and other outdoor pursuits.
As a student at Sewanee he was a Thomas J. Watson Fellow, and spent a year living in Christian monasteries in Africa, Europe, and the Solomon Islands. He was ordained in the Diocese of Dallas and served there for 12 years, and has been rector of All Saints’ since May 2023.
Meade taught English, religious studies, philosophy, and music at the elementary, secondary, and graduate levels in Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, and England before her ordination as a priest. She was rector of Mount Olivet Church in New Orleans for 13 years, a General Convention deputy and president of the standing committee. She was one of the founding contributors of Covenant, and continues to write for it as well as for Daily Devotions. She is the author of The Tale of Rebekah Rabbit, a fantasy Easter story.
Roberts recently became rector of St. Mary’s Church in El Dorado, Arkansas, after serving as rector of Grace Church in Ponca City, Oklahoma, for several years. He is the editor of The Day Hours of the Divine Office According to the Anglican Breviary. He has participated in several Living Church conferences and has been a guest contributor to Covenant.
The foundation also re-elected these members: the Rt. Rev. Jenny Andison, the Rev. Stewart Clem, the Rt. Rev. Christopher Cocksworth, the Most Rev. Gerald James Ian Ernest, the Rev. Ajit John, Anna McLean, the Rt. Rev. Poulson Reed, the Rev. Jacob Smith, Canon Carrie Boren Headington, the Rev. Dr. Walter L. Prehn III, the Rt. Rev. George Sumner, Dr. Muthuraj Swamy, the Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Rowan Williams, and the Rev. Clint Wilson.
The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and also writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.
