St. Philip’s Welcomes New Pastor
The Reverend Mary Blessing

Pastor Mary Blessing will be the new Vicar of St. Philip the Apostle beginning September 1, 2006.  She is a San Francisco Bay Area native, born in the East Bay and raised mostly in San Francisco. She lived her middle school years in Oberlin, Ohio, and a year in Switzerland just out of high school.  She received her Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from Mills College, Oakland, and her Master of Divinity from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley.

Mary met Jim Blessing while doing volunteer ministry with a non-denominational religious radio broadcast based in Berkeley. They married soon after college at Stanford University Chapel.  They have 2 daughters, Christy and Rebecca, who are now in college.

Just for fun, here is a photo of what my family did on 4th of July at St. Jude's.  Becky has a lovely voice and enjoys singing in the "Talent Show" at St. Jude's. This year she had no opportunity to find accompaniment, so Jim and I volunteered to "back her up."  Jim ended up spending about 10 hours making a special arrangement of flute and saxophone on the piece, "I Will Praise Him", but it was Becky's a cappella ending that I think "wowed" the crowd".

             Pastor Mary Blessing

Mary has a passion for reaching out to the community in which she serves.  In the diverse area of Cupertino she worked tirelessly to make connections between her church and the growing multicultural demographic of that city. She was an active member of the Cupertino Citizens Cross Cultural Consortium, and was clergy oversight for a parish group that worked to bring about multicultural awareness.  She is also a member of the Santa Clara County Interfaith Clergy Association, a Board member of the El Camino Clergy Organization, Co-chair of the Peace and Justice Commission of the Diocese of El Camino Real, and Chair of the Diocesan Task Force for creating a Policy for Protecting Children and Youth.

Pastor Mary, Jim, Christy and Becky are looking forward to moving to Scotts Valley where they can immerse themselves in a new community of people who seek hope through the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Prior to Seminary, Pastor Mary worked at the University of California, Berkeley library and Stanford University Archives. After serving at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, and St. Michael and All Angels, Concord, Pastor Blessing moved to the Diocese of El Camino Real where she served at Episcopal Church in Almaden, St. Timothy's, Mountain View, and most recently as Associate Rector at St. Jude the Apostle, Cupertino. Her work has covered a broad range of responsibilities, but her main areas of ministry are pastoral care, children and youth/young adult spiritual formation and newcomer incorporation. In addition, she is the clergy oversight person for lay pastoral ministries such as Stephen Ministry and Covenant Groups.