The Rev’d Rebecca Anne Barnes was born and raised in Pennsylvania and has lived in New York since 1988. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music and German from Hartwick College and a Master of Music in Classical Vocal Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. In the summer of 2011, she was a delegate to the Canterbury Scholars’ Progamme. In May 2012, Mother Barnes earned her Master of Divinity with honors from The General Theological Seminary, and upon graduation was awarded the Alumni/Alumnae Ecclesiastical History Prize. She is currently pursuing a Master of Sacred Theology degree at General with a specific focus in ascetical theology and liturgy.

Mother Barnes’ passion for ministry has most strongly been lived out in the areas of contemplative spirituality, specifically as a presenter of Centering Prayer, and in social justice ministry. She is also an Associate of the Order of the Holy Cross.

As a professional singer, her career was primarily in sacred and liturgical music. She also worked in higher education administration as Assistant Director of Admission at the Manhattan School, and as a program officer for the Institute of International Education. 

Mother Barnes enjoys photography and travel, especially to Mexico. She is married to Elizabeth Grohowski, a professional singer and member of St. Bartholomew’s.

The Rev’d Dr Philip H. Towner came to St. Ignatius of Antioch on Palm Sunday 2011, when, as part of his formation for Holy Orders, he began a two year internship under Father Blume’s supervision. He joined the staff as curate following his ordination to the diaconate on March 2, 2013, and, along with liturgical and pastoral duties, shares responsibility for our adult Christian formation program.

Since completing his Ph.D. in New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1984, he has worked as a biblical and translation scholar in various academic contexts and around the world. Currently he serves as Dean of the Eugene A. Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship and Translation Studies at American Bible Society here in New York.  He holds honorary lectureships in biblical studies at the University of St. Andrews; the Biblijne Seminarium Teologiczne, Wroclaw, Poland; and at three Pontifical universities in Rome: the Pontifical Biblical Institute (Pontifical Gregorian University), the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum), and the Pontifical Urbaniana University.  Before moving to New York City in 2008, he directed the global translation program of the United Bible Societies based in the United Kingdom, where he lived in Oxford.  He is a member of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, and the author and editor of several books and numerous articles in the fields of biblical studies, translation studies and missiology.

Dr Towner and his wife Kathleen have been married since 2008.  They enjoy travel, cooking, books (and more books), theater, Italy, and the Maine coast.  Dr Towner has two daughters, Rebekah, who is married and lives in the U.K., and Erin, who teaches Kindergarten and attends graduate school in Minnesota.

Deacon Paul grew up on Long Island and has lived in Manhattan since 1979.  He was ordained in 2007, having been sponsored by the Church of the Ascension in Greenwich Village. He did field placement at St. Paul’s Chapel at Trinity Wall Street and has previously served as deacon at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Kip’s Bay.  Deacons traditionally have one foot in the Church and one foot in the World, and that “bridge ministry” is the umbrella concept for Deacon Paul’s ministry. His particular interests are adult education, spiritual formation, and pastoral care.  Deacon Paul is an Associate of the Order of the Holy Cross (an Anglican Benedictine community) and is co-mentor of the Education for Ministry group that meets at the Church of St. John’s in the Village.

Deacon Paul received a bachelor’s degree in Russian from Oberlin College in Ohio and a master’s degree in International Economics and Finance from NYU.  He works for the City of New York, where he serves as Staff Manager for Bridge Maintenance, Inspection and Operations. 

A native New Zealander, Storm was ordained in 1995 in the Diocese of Dunedin, Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. After taking her first theological degree, she followed her sense of call into hospital chaplaincy, first serving at Dunedin Hospital and then as Chaplain to Mental Health Services for two city hospitals and the wider community. During this time her spiritual home was in the Anglo-Catholic parish of St. Peter’s, Dunedin. On sabbatical in New York in 1998-99, Storm studied Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary and earned the S.T.M.

Returning to New York a year later, she began training as a pastoral psychotherapist and psychoanalyst at the Blanton Peale Graduate Institute of Religion and Health and began the doctoral program at Union, which she completed in 2008. Her dissertation examined the experience of chaplains at the 9/11 Temporary Morgue at Ground Zero from a theological perspective, and was published as Trauma and Transformation at Ground Zero (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011). From 2002 to 2007, Storm was Canon Pastor of the Cathedral Church of St John the Divine, responsible for the incredibly diverse and committed Cathedral Congregation, and from 2007 to 2009 was Priest Associate here at Saint Ignatius. In 2009 Storm took up her current post as Associate Professor of Pastoral Care and Theology and Director of Anglican Studies at the Lutheran Theoogical Seminary at Philadelphia.

Priest, psychotherapist and academic, Storm has a love of: good liturgy that leads to a connection with God who knows us completely, loves us anyway and calls us to go do likewise; good food and people to share it with; a good rendition of Monty Python; and good time with her other great loves, the Rev’d Stephen Harding and their six year-old son Theo.

Fr. Evans is no stranger to the Diocese of New York, having spent most of his adult life as a practicing lawyer and layman active in parochial and diocesan affairs.  After ten years of private practice on Wall Street, he became a Tax Counsel of Mobil Corporation in 1977.  A vestryman of Trinity Church, Wall Street, he also served as Clerk of the Parish and chaired the committee on the devolution of its chapels. He served the Diocese as a delegate to Diocesan Convention, a member of the Standing Committee, and as a member of numerous other bodies. A trustee of Nashotah House from 1980 to1992, he is currently a trustee of New York Theological Seminary from which he received his M.Div. in 1993.  He is a Knight of Justice of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem and is active in the affairs of the Order. Fr. Evans holds a B.A. from Yale, an M.A. from Cambridge University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Ordained priest and deacon in 1995 by the Bishop of Argyll and The Isles in the Scottish Episcopal Church, Fr. Evans served as Chaplain of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Oban, Argyll, for two years, returning to the US to become an Interim at Christ Church, Lynbrook, New York, in 1998. The following year he was called as rector of All Hallows Parish, South River, Davidsonville, Maryland. He retired from there in 2006 and retains the title of Rector Emeritus.

Fr. Evans resides in Portsmouth, NH, but maintains a pied-a-terre in Manhattan and is licensed to officiate in the Diocese of New York.  His son Jeremy, daughter-in-law Jennifer, and grandsons Bennett and Fitch reside in Newton Centre, Massachusetts.