Dear Friends,
We’ve called a new Lay Associate for Children, Youth, and Family Formation at St. Paul’s – welcome Erica Ridderman!
Erica grew up in Indiana, graduating from Indiana University in 2014. She completed her Master of Divinity at Duke Divinity School in 2018; and just last week she graduated again from Duke University, now with a PhD in Chistian Theological Studies. She’s a person who is deeply curious – about God, people, and our relationships with each other. She’s married to Debbie Wong, and they live in Durham while Debbie continues to pursue her studies.
What stood out to me when we interviewed Erica is her integrity, gentleness, and curiosity, her collaborative spirit, her love and respect for all people, and her orientation to spiritual formation. I think she will become a trusted source of support, love, and guidance to our young people and their grown-ups, to all our lay leaders doing ministry with children and youth, and to the entire parish.
Erica officially begins her work with us on July 6th, but we’ll have a chance to meet her in person on Sunday, June 1 when she’ll attend the 9 am Eucharist and the EYC Year-End Picnic later that day!
Erica is currently a postulant in our diocese seeking ordination as a priest. In order that she may be ordained in June 2026, she has some important formation tasks to complete by March/April next year, including some pastoral care training hours. Thus, she will serve at 30+ hours average per week (3/4 time) for her first nine months with us, then shift to full-time once she completes her training. Though she will be 3/4 time for a bit, some of her required pastoral care training will happen AT St. Paul’s as she’ll complete a portion of her required hours doing pastoral care with parishioners here.
To ensure the ministry remains supported full-time, Natalie Sroka will provide some extra support in administration and communications work for Youth Ministries during this time. This is a natural fit for Natalie as she currently serves the same support role in Children’s Ministry. If you know Natalie, you know that her work is stellar. She’ll be a great complement and support to Erica and to the whole ministry of the church.
Now that we’ve called Erica, I will soon turn my attention to identifying and calling a new Youth Ministry Coordinator to follow Ben Bricio. Thank you for your ongoing support and prayers. There are exciting things yet ahead for St. Paul’s, and you are an essential part of that journey.
This comes with Love,
Mo. Sarah+