“Send Us a Selfie” Initiative Announced

Saint Mark’s is in the process of updating our directory to ensure we have accurate contact information. As part of our effort to update contact information we would also like to add a photo to our records for internal purposes only. It is quick and easy to fill out the online form and upload a photo. On Sunday mornings you can also take a moment to visit the “Selfie Station” in the West End of the Church or Parish Hall during Coffee Hour. Once there, you can fill out an information card and have your photo taken or be coached on how to take a selfie by our highly trained Ministry Residents!

Selfie of the Saint Mark’s Staff and Office Volunteers

The Lion's Mark December/January 2018

In this issue, read reflections from Father Sean Mullen, Father Kyle Babin, and Robert McCormick, plus upcoming events, dates to mark, and more. View the latest issue.

The Lion's Mark: October/November 2018

In this issue, read reflections by Father Sean Mullen and Robert McCormick, updates about various capital projects, and focuses on various ministries of the parish. View the latest issue.

New Assistant Rector Announced

Father Kyle Babin

With joyful thanksgiving, Saint Mark’s announces the appointment of the Rev. Dr. Kyle Babin to serve as Assistant Rector.  Fr. Babin is well known to the parish, having served here many times as Deacon of the Mass while he was a student the Virginia Theological Seminary.  He is married to Robert McCormick, the Organist & Choirmaster of the parish. 

A graduate of VTS, Fr. Babin has earned degrees in organ performance from Rice University (BA), Yale University (MM), and the Manhattan School of Music (DMA).  His entire adult life and career have been spent in service to the church either as a musician, and now as a priest of the church.  Most recently, Fr. Babin has been serving as Assistant Rector at St. Peter’s in the Great Valley, and as Director of Choral Music at St. James School, which was founded by Saint Mark’s.  This new appointment, allows for Fr. Babin to continue his work at St. James School, as an extension of his ministry at Saint Mark’s.

At Saint Mark’s, Fr. Babin will have primary responsibility for the leadership of ministries to and with families and children, ministry with young adults, and he will work with the Rector and Staff to develop more intentional programmatic ways of inviting, welcoming, and connecting newcomers to the life and ministry of the parish.  He will, of course, share liturgical leadership and preaching responsibility with the Rector.

Although far from universal usage, the title “Assistant Rector” is generally given to a priest who is relatively new to ordained ministry, and whose tenure in a parish is expected to be somewhat shorter than a priest who might hold the title “Associate.”  Fr. Babin will take up his duties on All Saints’ Day, November 1.

Important Parish Announcement

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It brings me both joy and sadness to write to share with you the news that our Associate Rector, Mother Erika Takacs, has been called to serve as the eleventh Rector of the Church of the Atonement in Chicago.  This is a marvelous call to ministry in a parish where Mother Takacs’s many gifts are extremely well suited.  I know that together with God’s people in that place, Mother Takacs is sure to build ministry that glorifies God’s Name and serves God’s kingdom, as she has done here for nearly seven years.  Anticipating this good work accounts for the joy!

Facing the tasks of saying good-bye to Erika, and of imagining ministry here without her accounts for the sadness.  Erika is not only an exceptional colleague in ministry, she is a one-of-a kind priest, whose extraordinary talents in liturgy, music, as a preacher, teacher, and leader of various ministries (especially with children and families) are matched by her faithfulness, the grace apparent in her life, and her warmth and love.  It has been my delight to realize with regularity over these past years that I am sometimes called to serve in her shadow, as her reputation has grown and been recognized far and wide.  And it has been a blessing of untold measure to be fed by her preaching.  Any rector would thank God for Erika: I certainly do!

The Church of the Atonement enjoys a reputation that will only be enhanced with Erika’s leadership.  Erika appreciates the challenges the church at large faces, and she has shown how well-equipped she is to take them on, and to help the church to grow and to thrive.  It is not only good and right that she should move on to lead a parish as its rector, it’s important that she does so - the church needs leaders like her - and I am thankful that God is calling her to serve in such a fine place.

Erika will continue to be with us through June 17.  Shortly I’ll reach out to you all to share plans to rejoice with her as she moves on, and to thank her and her husband Dan Shapiro for all they have done for this parish, and to send them on their way to Chicago with our blessings and love.  Meanwhile, I know you will waste no time in getting a head start in letting her know how much we will miss her.

Faithfully,

(The Rev.) Sean E. Mullen
Rector