To learn more about our Interim-Priest-in-Charge process please contact the Canon for Transitions: Rev. Cn. Jane Gober.
All interested and eligible persons should send a letter of interest, CV/resume and OTM profile to the same as soon as possible. jgober@diopa.org
We ask that no applicant contact the congregation directly.

Rite 2, never Rite 1. Two services at 8:15 and 10:15. The latter service has music; the earlier is more contemplative. Simple. No robing except the celebrant, but the celebrant is often fully kitted out in chasuble. Music is heavily influenced by the Catholic origins of our previous rectors in that we use the RC Gather hymnal as well as the TEC hymnal. Psalms and responses are led by a cantor. The music is integrated and participatory, never a “performance.” Sermons are said, not read. More low church than high church, though we might be more accurately described as “sideways.” Have incorporated practices from Orthodox churches* as well as honoring other faith traditions. We can be a bit crazy,
but we are crazy-serious about worship.
*For example, blessing the Delaware River for Epiphany

We are a loving, inclusive, welcoming community with a minimum of drama or discord. When we say, “All are welcome,” we mean all. We practice simplicity (our worship space is a former one-room schoolhouse), radical hospitality, and a serious commitment to service, to be Christ in the community. We have been integral in several feeding programs in the area. We cosponsor Peacemeal, a monthly meal for those in need of food or companionship. We host a weekly mobile food pantry with the Bucks County Housing Group, and we keep stocked a free food pantry in our parking lot. We are well-integrated into the community of New Hope, long a center of LGBTQ+ life. We march in the Pride parade and have a presence at Pridefest, and sponsor events during Pride Week like a speakers’ series that has included a gay asylum seeker from Syria, a trans rights lawyer, and local high school students talking about prejudice in their schools. We have had local drag queens do a benefit for our human trafficking service project. We also reflect the artistic heritage of the area. We host a sculpture from the Bucks County Arts Council, featuring the artwork of our own parishioners during Creationtide, and offer a spring and fall concert schedule of music in all genres. Local environmentalists and fans of furry friends have fun at our Creationfest which offers pet blessings; free plants, clothes, and books; and closes with a folk music concert. We also reach out beyond our community. We work with the Simple Way and the St Clare project in Philly. We participate in the Amnesty International Write for Rights project. For years we coordinated a bra collection for an international organization, Free the Girls, which helps trafficking victims reintegrate into their communities; and we brought Rev. Becca Stevenson to speak to the deanery. We were labelled by a previous bishop as “the funkiest parish in the diocese”. He was glitter-bombed by a parishioner when he visited the church. Sadly, that parishioner is no longer with us; we all put on a bit of glitter for her funeral.

Like most parishes, we have a diminished congregation post-COVID. Some people have fallen away, some have lost the muscle memory of Sunday attendance, and some have moved away to take advantage of easier work-at-home guidelines. There is work here to regather some and reach out to others so that the work of the community can go on unabated. We have very strong lay leadership and engagement, but we are aging. We have no paid staff aside from the priest, the cantor, and musician for Sundays. Any rector would have to be good at multi-tasking and being organized. There is also the perennial problem of marrying the populations of the first and second services. Once-a-month potlucks and the annual Creationsfest help with cross-fertilization, but we haven’t found the perfect answer yet.

Like many congregations, we want to know how to be good news for younger people right now, and we can see that many fresh views could happen with improved social media, website, and streaming.  We hope for a priest who can also enhance our technological capabilities, especially with the quality of our streaming services.

We are traditionally a center of LGBTQ+ life in the area, as well as an artistic center from the days of the Pennsylvania impressionists like Redfield and Garber.  we believe we would be a good ministry site for a newly ordained person, and we especially welcome LGBTQ+ candidates to apply.  New Hope is fairly liberal politically, but surrounding areas can be quite illiberal. The neighborhood is expensive and seems to be only getting more so. This is in line with demographic information we received from the diocese several years ago that our section of Bucks County was getting richer, older, whiter, and more isolated. This generates a two-pronged mission for the church: to reach out to the old-rich-white folk and bring them into community, harnessing their gifts and treasure to do good in the world; and to reach into the cracks where the non-white non-rich folk have fallen. There is a sizable Hispanic presence in our community, especially across the river in Lambertville. Individuals from the parish do good work in that community but the church does not have a formal presence there. There is a Latinx church that may be losing its building. We have hosted other faith communities in the past – Jewish and Buddhist -- and that could work again.

A few daydreams we have that we wonder if you could help us incarnate:

• Balance our core value of simplicity with the necessary organization and structure.
• Better publicize and popularize our service projects to encourage those who want to do good but shy away from organized
  religion.
• Expand lay presence in the pastoral care program – look for ways to expand hospital visits, help the homebound, and reach
  out to the grieving.
• Don’t be afraid of thinking outside of the box and refresh worship, fellowship, and community engagement in interesting ways.

All correspondence must go through the Office of Transitions in the Diocese of Pennsylvania (contact info above).

To get a glimpse: https://stphilipsnewhope.org/