Before becoming Rector of Christ Church, I was the Director of Student Life at the Colgate Rochester Crozier Divinity School,  working with students in all aspects of seminary life: assisting in academic support, student worship planning, racial justice initiatives, providing pastoral counseling and leading off campus programs and retreats.

In Sewanee, Tennessee, I was a middle school humanities teacher, support chaplain, and dorm parent at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Boarding School while serving as a missioner to three rural parishes in the surrounding area.

In the Diocese of Washington, DC, and then in New York City, I served parishes with parochial schools: first at St. John’s in Olney, MD. and then at Church of St. Luke in the Fields, NYC. In both parishes, I was Chaplain and Religious Education teacher for the schools and Assistant to the Rector of each church.

Most formative experience as an intern was as chaplain intern on the AIDS unit at Beth Israel South.

I  graduated Warren Wilson College in Ashville, NC, with a minor in philosophy and honors in English.

I graduated the General Theological Seminary in 1997.

 “Whatever we do or don’t believe doesn’t change the miraculous love God has for us, or the miracle that God needs us.”

The Very Rev’d Ruth Ferguson

I’ve been an ordained Episcopal priest for 25 years, and Rector of Christ Church for almost 13 years.  17 years ago, when I was the Director of Student Life at CRCDS (the local divinity school), and looking for a place to worship, I walked into Christ Church with my two tiny daughters. From then on, I wanted them to be formed by this eclectic, gifted, close-knit parish and the beauty of its liturgy, its choral music, its sanctuary. 

 I wanted them to know the city of Rochester as their home and not just the suburbs. In a world where community is scarce - especially  life-long, intergenerational community – those tiny girls have become young women who still come home to Christ Church during their college breaks.

Before Christ Church, I’d gone many wondrous places in my priesthood, careful not to take on the role as Rector anywhere. Christ Church was (is) my first rectorship. There’s a story there, and maybe I’ll share it with you some time over a coffee if I haven’t already. Maybe you’ll share a story of your own with me if you haven’t already, for these are the ties that bind! The pilgrimage of faith at Christ Church is as simple and profound as this: we are intentional about sharing our lives with one another. Ask anyone who’s come to Christ Church and stayed on, and they will tell you that we are not a homogenous group of people with a homogenous faith, but our unique community is a marvelous place to expand the wideness of your being and grow into your vocation. It certainly has been for me.

Ruth+

“I’m not a scholar, but I do love existential theology, Rabbinic and Christian traditions of biblical interpretation, and exploring Christian faith in literature (from the Russians to Southern Gothics).”