Dear Friends,

At the end of this month, our Canon for Church Planting, Tom Herrick, retires from our diocesan staff. I cannot say enough to convey my love for Tom, and my deep appreciation for all that he has poured out in service of our Lord and of this Diocese. As I did at our Synod last fall, I want to express on behalf of us all our deepest thanks for his wise, persevering and sacrificial labor for the spread of the Gospel through church planting. We are more outwardly focused, more equipped for mission because of Tom Herrick. To God be the glory!
 
And now it is my great joy to announce to you that we have called the Rev. Tuck Bartholomew as our new Canon for Church Planting.
 
Tuck has an extraordinarily rich range of experience that he brings to this new role. He was a campus minister with InterVarsity, an associate pastor for churches in Lexington, SC and in Charlottesville, VA, and then Pastor of Community Formation on the Executive Team at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City with Tim Keller. He planted City Church Philadelphia in 2006 and has served there for 15 years.
 
Tuck was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America, but then moved to the Reformed Church in America, a denomination that is supportive of women in pastoral leadership, all the while on a journey toward Anglicanism. His church’s worship has been grounded in the Book of Common Prayer, he has had an Anglican spiritual director, and he has been deeply influenced by the many Anglican theologians he has studied over the years. Tuck is in our ordination process, and I expect that he will be ordained as an Anglican in the not too distant future.
 
Tuck is a scholar—he has a Ph.D. in sociology—a seminary professor, and a thoughtful interpreter of the culture. He has a grasp of an amazing breadth of material about the Gospel and society, from the early church to the present context. He is eager in this new role to focus on church planting and developing the next generation of leaders for the church’s mission.
 
He is married to Stacy and they have three adult children. He and Stacy have a great heart for pastoral care and spiritual formation. They are a wonderful team in ministry.
 
You can begin to get to know Tuck by watching this video interview with Tom Herrick.
 
People who have known Tuck without exception testify to his giftedness in ministry and his personal character. The members of our search committee were enthusiastic and unanimous in recommending Tuck.
 
The Rev. Dan Marotta explained, “Tuck handled the many interviews with grace and humility. The search team noted that, while Tuck was vastly more qualified than any other applicant, he was also more humble and less self-congratulatory than any other. This combination of experience and humility was winsome to us and, in the search team’s opinion, sets a good model for the personal virtues of a priest. And every single one of Tuck’s references had wonderful things to say about both his ministry giftedness and personal character. He has left a trail of friends in his wake.”
 
The Rev. David Hanke said, “In conversation, Tuck cares for you like a pastor and he inspires you with church planting vision. I’ve been renewed in my own vision for Restoration as an incubator church because of my conversations with Tuck.”
 
Tuck will serve with us part-time for the next couple of months as he winds up his ministry in Philadelphia. He will become our first full-time Canon when he and Stacy move to Virginia, probably in May.
 
I am thrilled that he is joining us as our new Canon for Church Planting. Please join me in thanking God for calling Tuck to us and pray for him as he begins his new ministry among us.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

The Rt. Rev. John A. M. Guernsey