The Rector

The Reverend Dr Andrew Charles Blume came to St Ignatius of Antioch in the Fall of 2007 as the parish’s ninth rector. A native New Yorker, he grew up on the Upper East Side and attended St Bernard’s School and the Collegiate School. He received his undergraduate degree from Trinity College in Hartford and attended Yale Divinity School before moving to Cambridge, Mass. to persue a doctorate in the history of art and architecture at Harvard, which he received in 1995. Before his ordination, Fr Blume finished his M.Div. at the Episcopal Divinity School. He has served parishes in Cambridge, Weston, and Framingham, Massachusetts, and, immediately preceeding his call to Saint Ignatius, the Church of the Advent in Boston.

From 1995 to 2001 Fr Blume taught history and art history at Harvard while serving as Assistant Senior Tutor (assistant dean) in Lowell House. He has also been a Kress Fellow at Villa I Tatti, the Harvard Universiry Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence. He is the author of a number of articles in scholarly journals on art, religion, and society in fifteenth-century Florence and Rome, as well as on process thought and sacramental theology.

Fr Blume has been married to Jacalyn since 1993 and they have a son, William, a student at St Bernard’s School. The Blumes also share their home with a Golden Retriever named Andy (yes, he is the “junior”), whom you are likely to meet if you visit the church during the week or stay for coffee hour after the eleven o’clock Mass on Sunday. In addition to his concern for animals and his interests in art and culture (including a real fondness for early and English Church music), Fr Blume is passionate about cooking and eating, especially the need to eat locally, naturally, and sustainability.