Fr. Bill and I are excited about our working together. We bring complementary gifts and experiences and believe Christ Church will be the richer for our partnership. While my role will evolve over time, I will be available for spiritual guidance, faith formation, small group work, community building and of course, worship. As a breast cancer survivor I am interested in the church’s role in healing and in illness as a spiritual journey. Being half-time means I will be at Christ Church three Sundays a month, which gives me one Sunday to connect with the people of Trinity in Iowa City, where my husband Mel is the Rector. It also provides time for me to continue my pastoral counseling practice which is located at Trinity Church. It is the hope of Mel, Bill and me that the I-380 corridor will benefit from a close relationship between these two churches.

I will tell you a little more about me: I grew up in Ohio and then spent twenty years in New York and fifteen back in Ohio before moving to Iowa City a bit over a year ago. I was ordained a priest in 1977, having graduated with an MA in comparative religion from Union Seminary and Columbia University in 1970 and an MDiv. from Union in 1972. In 1988 I received my Doctor of Ministry degree in Ministry to Marriage and Family from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I have served parishes in New York and Ohio for twenty-five years, twenty of those years as co-rector with Mel. Mel and I have two young adult children, Erika in Washington, D.C. and Jake in Seattle, Washington.

I have served on a number of interesting national church committees and commissions over the years and have enjoyed being a shaper of and participant in the church in this way. Last year at this time I was serving as an "Angel" to the Diocese of Fort Worth, where women are still not ordained to the priesthood.

Please make some special time for me to get to know you.

Faithfully in Christ,
Barbara Schlachter