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Church News

Interim Rector For St. Paul’s Church

Rachel Warriner Bartron, senior warden of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Montrose, has announced the appointment of the Reverend Canon Charles A. Cesaretti to be Interim Rector of the parish beginning January 1, 2006. “We are pleased that Father Charles has accepted our invitation,” said Ms. Bartron. “He is familiar with our parish, having served for three months in early 2005. He is no stranger to Montrose and is very active in many area organizations and activities.” The Rev. Elizabeth Moulton, rector of the parish for the past six years, will retire at the end of December.

Fr. Cesaretti is a native of New Jersey. He was graduated from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ and attended the Episcopal Church’s seminary in Philadelphia. He was ordained priest in 1965 and served parishes in New Jersey before post-graduate studies at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he earned a Master’s Degree in Theology.

The Rev. Canon Charles A. Cesaretti appointed Interim Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Montrose.

In 1976 he was invited to the national staff of the Episcopal Church, serving in positions of domestic and international policy and diplomacy. His appointment as assistant to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church as envoy to oversee the international church and governmental relations of the Episcopal Church took him to assignments in Central America, East and South Africa, the Middle East, and Northern Ireland. He was seconded to the staff of the Archbishop of Canterbury to assist with release of religious hostages in Lebanon and the Middle East.

In 1990 Fr. Cesaretti became the assistant to the Rector of Trinity Church, Wall Street, where he was engaged in the research and development of parish outreach and mission.

In 1996 he became executive vice-president of the Jackie Robinson Foundation. He was administrator of the foundation, which provides educational scholarships and mentors minority students at colleges and universities in the United States.

In 1999 Fr. Cesaretti was named the executive director of the Center for Sexuality and Religion, an interfaith agency dedicated to the dialogue and cooperation between the communities of faith and the scientific sexological communities. He retired in 2001 and moved to New Milford, where he had had a cottage for a number of years.

He is a fellow of the College of Preachers, a member of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, and was honored by the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey with the honorary title of “canon” for his service to the local, national, and global church. He was adjunct faculty at Widner University, Philadelphia. Cesaretti is chair of the board of the Kirkridge Study and Retreat Center in Stroudsburg. He is the editor of four books, and author of numerous articles and reviews.

Fr. Cesaretti is currently working on an assessment project of clergy boundary violations with John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York City, and editing a book on the subject.

St. Paul’s Church was organized on Easter Monday, April 4, 1831. The cornerstone of the church was laid later that year, and the first service was held in the new church on Christmas Eve, 1832. In 1857 a new church building was constructed and was declared “the handsomest church in [the] diocese,” by the bishop of the time, Alonzo Potter. The church is Gothic from a plan by Richard Upjohn, the architect of Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York City, and a leader of the Gothic Revival in the United States. The internal woodwork is of solid oak, and handsomely executed by Mr. William Boyd of Montrose.

Sunday services at St. Paul’s are at 8 and 10 o’clock on Sunday morning. A reception to welcome Fr. Cesaretti to the parish will be held on Sunday, January 8 immediately following the 10 a.m. service. All are welcome.

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