The Rev. Ed Bacon
Interim Rector
Ed, who is the son of a Baptist minister, began his Episcopal journey of faith at St. Luke’s nearly four decades ago when, while serving as our parish’s youth minister, he was granted admission as a postulate for the priesthood. Ed was ordained in 1983 and his ministry led him to become a national voice on issues of faith and justice for all regardless of race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.
Until his retirement in May 2016, Ed was the rector of All Saints Church in Pasadena, California – a 4,000 member multi-ethnic urban Episcopal parish, with a reputation for energetic worship, a radically inclusive spirit, and a progressive peace and justice agenda. He shepherded All Saints for more than two decades. Before that he served as dean of the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Jackson, Mississippi; rector of St Mark’s in Dalton; and, earlier, when he was a Baptist minister, he was campus minister and dean of students at Mercer University in Macon.
Ed, who holds a master of theology from Emory University and honorary doctorates from The Church Divinity School of the Pacific and Mercer University, is the author of 8 Habits of Love, a guide to living life through love and connection, not fear and isolation. His energies these days focus on leadership in anxious times; living a love-based life as opposed to a fear-based life; peacemaking; interfaith relations; contemplative practices and their impact on relationships, creativity, and brain functioning; and, articulating the Christian faith in non-bigoted, science-friendly, and inclusive ways. He blogs regularly on Medium.com about wholemaking in a tribalized/polarized cultural environment and can be followed there as well as on Facebook and Twitter @RevEdBacon. His new website is Edbacon.co.
Ed has been both a guest and a regular guest host on Oprah Winfrey’s Soul Series on Oprah & Friends Radio, and a guest panelist in the Spirituality 101 segment of The Oprah Winfrey Show’s “Living Your Best Life” series. He is a contributor to Oprah.com and a frequent guest on Super Soul Sunday on the Oprah Winfrey Network and his interviews with her have been chosen as part of Super Soul Conversations by Oprah podcasts. He is the recipient of many awards including the Peace Award and the Compassion Award from the Muslim Public Affairs Council, Los Angeles. In October he was the recipient of the Ruby McKnight Williams Award from the Pasadena NAACP.
Ed and his wife, Hope Hendricks-Bacon, have two adult children and two grandchildren. Since retiring they have lived near their family in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Rev. Elizabeth Shows Caffey
Senior Associate Rector, Liturgy and Education
Elizabeth has served at St. Lukes since February 2015. Elizabeth has a passion for liturgy and a love for all things community. Her focus is around fostering opportunities for spiritual development and growth. Before seminary she developed and subsequently directed the Johnson Intern Program at Chapel of the Cross, an Episcopal Service Corps program in Chapel Hill, NC while also working as the family coordinator for Chatham Habitat for Humanity. She has served at the Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City and All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Atlanta as the priest for outreach, liturgy and pastoral care. The connecting thread through all of Elizabeth’s work has been engaging in compelling questions about God, living as a person of great faith and intellectual inquiry, and responding with action and intention in how we live. She loves camping with her children and dogs, Ana and Fig. Elizabeth is always up for travel and adventure. Having been raised in North Carolina and as an alumni of the University, Elizabeth is an avid Duke basketball fan.
The Rev. Horace L. Griffin
Senior Associate for Pastoral Care and Community Ministries
A graduate of Morehouse College, Boston University, and Vanderbilt in theological studies, Horace came to St. Luke's in July 2017 after a twenty-seven year vocation as a college and seminary professor and hospital chaplain. While he has served on a part-time basis at a number of parishes, currently he has oversight for the pastoral care ministry and provides leadership for the fifteen Community Ministries here at St. Luke’s.
An award-winning author of the groundbreaking, Their Own Receive Them Not: African American Lesbians and Gays in the Black Church, he was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in 2005 and has passionately devoted his parish ministry to social justice, racial reconciliation and LBGTQ equality in the Church.
His fundamental belief that we are called to love God and treat all humans with love and equal justice is at the heart of his ministry. When he is not working on making the world a better place, he enjoys music, concerts, and film. He is interested in reading books on religion, African American and Gay history, and First Ladies.
Matthew Brown
Director of Music
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Matthew oversees St. Luke’s music program and is Artistic Director of the Music at St. Luke’s series. He earned degrees in organ performance from the North Carolina School of the Arts and the Eastman School of Music, and also holds the Sacred Music Diploma from Eastman's Institute of Music Leadership. His teachers included Dame Gillian Weir, David Higgs, Jack Mitchener, and Wayne Leupold.
He has concertized throughout the USA and abroad, and several performances have been heard in broadcasts of American Public Media’s Pipe Dreams and the nationally syndicated program, With Heart and Voice. He has performed in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; Barcelona Cathedral, Spain; Washington National Cathedral; Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York; Princeton University Chapel; Assembly Hall of the Mormon Tabernacle; Trinity Church on Copley Square, Boston; and the Episcopal Cathedrals of Atlanta, Charleston, and Nashville.
He is a member of the Anglican Association of Musicians, American Guild of Organists, and the American Choral Director’s Association. Each summer, he manages the Royal School of Church Music’s Carolina Course at Duke University.
Director of Children, Youth and Family Ministry
Elizabeth Moore
Interim Director of Operations
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A parishioner of St Luke’s for over 25 years, Elizabeth has served since the summer of 2019 as our Interim Director of Operations. Drawing from her prior management experience in the carpet industry, she leads the team covering Human Resources, office administration, property management, and finance.
Elizabeth was born in Atlanta and raised in North Georgia near Chattanooga. She is a graduate of The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. She and her husband Chris and their two daughters live in the Morningside neighborhood along with their dog Bear and cat Charlotte. In her spare time, Elizabeth enjoys reading, knitting, pottery making, and spending time with family and friends.
Mark Simmons
Director of Membership & Stewardship
404-873-7624 |
Mark loves people! He has worked in the nonprofit world virtually his whole career with major stints at the American Red Cross and two other communities of faith. Mark’s role at St. Luke’s is to help members and newcomers make connections with people and ministries of the parish, in addition to coordinating efforts to fund the church’s ministries. He finds his work fulfilling and important because it helps him and others connect with something bigger than the self and to make the world a better place.
Mark is a Louisiana native, but considers himself fully Georgian, having lived his adult life here. He dabbles with making pottery, trying new recipes in his wok, and he always has an in-progress book on his nightstand. Mark and his partner, Kippy, have been together many years and live in Cobb County with their wirehaired dachshund. Mark loves being a part of the warm, welcoming, inquiring, and difference-making community of St. Luke’s.
