Interim Rector Sarah Phelps announces that the Rev. Robert Fruehwirth, recently the rector of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hillsborough, will be joining us on a half-time, interim basis through this next (last) leg of the rector transition period. Read more about this in Mo. Sarah’s letter to the parish:
While we are still missing Fr. Javier around the church office this week (It’s so quiet all of a sudden!), I am pleased to announce that the Rev. Robert Fruehwirth will be joining us at St. Paul’s on a half-time, interim basis through this next (last) leg of the rector transition period.
Fr. Robert has just finished his tenure as rector of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hillsborough where he served since July, 2019. He is now turning his attention to building a parachurch ministry that will offer, as he describes it, “individual spiritual direction, spiritual director training, and intensive formational programming alongside parishes with the aim of supporting clergy vocations and lay leadership.” Joining us half-time at St. Paul’s provides Fr. Robert an opportunity to offer his gifts directly in a parish setting, while also building this ministry to serve our whole diocese and region.
Robert’s most prominent gifts in ministry are preaching/liturgical leadership, spiritual formation, and pastoral care, and those are the areas in which he’ll be supporting St. Paul’s most regularly. Fr. Robert is also deeply committed to the hard, deep work of anti-racism. He has done phenomenal work with St. Matthews as they have reckoned publicly and spiritually with the fact that their church building was built by enslaved people whose slave “masters” were among the founding members of their parish. St. Matthew’s is now actively engaged in making reparations in various ways, including supporting the work of the Stagsville Descendants Council (Durham), many of whom are descendants of the enslaved people who built St. Matthew’s church.
What I personally love about Robert is that he has a deep spirituality and is a great listener; and while he was once a monk himself, he knows how to make the wisdom of saints and mystics like Julian of Norwich accessible to “normal people” like the rest of us who work in corporations and raise families. And… he’s fun! Fr. Robert is excited to be joining us at St. Paul’s for a season, at least until a new elected rector is in place. He’ll start on Monday, September 15. Please join us in welcoming him at each of our Sunday Eucharists on September 21!
Here’s a note from Fr. Robert as he prepares to begin his work among us:
I am delighted to be joining the clergy and lay leadership at St. Paul’s and delighted to be working under your interim rector, the Rev. Sarah Phelps. Most recently, I served as the rector at St. Matthew’s in Hillsborough, as associate rector at St. Michael’s in Raleigh, and before that at St. Peter Mancroft, a parish in Norwich, England, where I also served as the priest director of a pilgrimage site there — the Shrine of Blessed Julian of Norwich. My passion in ministry is adult spiritual formation, something I explored through twenty years in an Episcopal monastic community and through training and practice in therapeutic counseling. Now married, I live in Chapel HIll with my two children (Corinne, 12 and Sebastian, 10) and my wife, Jane, who works as a research professor in Economics at the University of North Carolina. I love preaching, prayer, conversation, and fellowship that deepens. A published author, I write daily and am currently working on my third book, Wholly Communion: the whole of ourselves given to the whole of God. I enjoy running, poetry, tinkering around the house, and riding bikes with my kids.
In addition to calling Fr. Robert into this half-time role associate role, I am in the process of reaching out to our associated and retired clergy at St. Paul’s who have offered to help in various ways. I hope to engage them from time to time on a “project basis” such as leading special liturgies like Blessing of the Animals, our monthly Eucharist at Searstone, providing occasional pulpit supply, preparing candidates for baptism or confirmation/reception, and assisting with pastoral emergencies as needed.
God is faithful, St. Paul’s. You are navigating a lot of change, and that is never easy. Your pastoral staff in this season is all new to you, but Erica, Fr. Robert, and I are each “all in” for your sake and for the sake of Christ. We will do our best to love and serve you well. You also have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to associated/retired clergy, and you have incredibly gifted and devoted lay leadership. I predict you are going to survive this transition just fine, and will be stronger and more united than ever on the other side!
This comes with Love,
Mo. Sarah+