Lisa Churchill Installed as Head Verger at St. Paul's Cathedral, San Diego

Lisa Churchill receives the Head Verger's virge at St. Paul's Cathedral, San Diego from the Rev. Canon Brooks Mason

At Evensong on Sunday July 14, 2013, the Rev. Canon Brooks Mason passed his ceremonial virge to Lisa Churchill, who assumed the duties of Head Verger at St. Paul's Cathedral in San Diego site of the VGEC 2009 Annual Conference. 

Brooks was our conference host in 2009. He was ordained in 2013 and remains Canon Verger. He will continue to perform much of the liturgical role associated with this position, but because Brooks is now ordained clergy, he turned over the role of Head Verger to Lisa. She is now completing her first year as Head Verger.

On its blog, St. Paul's marked the occasion by welcoming Lisa to this new ministry. And, for those who want to learn more about vergers, or altar service in general -- check out this ministry spotlight and this field guide to the processional.

Here's the slideshow from the installation service and if the embedded version doesn't work, here's a link to the slideshow, and a link to the pictures.

Lisa first joined the verger corps as a sub-verger in 2011 (after serving as an acolyte and thurifer). She was installed as a verger in early 2012, and became Head Verger in July 2013 (the current installation). There are currently ten vergers at St Paul's Cathedral, and at least three (including Head Verger) serve at main Holy Eucharist or other large services. Lisa says, "I experience service as a verger to be a form of worship. I am blessed to be part of a great team of dedicated vergers, thurifers and acolytes at St Paul's."

Lisa's weekday job is senior grants administrator at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, a non-profit biomedical research institute in La Jolla, CA.

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Abstract: New Head Verger at St. Paul's Cathedral, San Diego, Lisa Churchill, succeeds the Rev. Canon Brooks Mason upon his ordination. Canon Mason headed the host committee for the VGEC Annual Conference at St. Paul's in 2009.

Please share your stories about about your own verger ministry and experiences with [email protected].

Register today for the VGEC Annual Conference on September 25 through 28, 2014 at the Parish of St. Luke in Burlington, Ontario Canada.