The Very Rev. Gregory L. Powell, dean of Trinity Cathedral on Goldsborough Street in Easton, is delighted to add two new members to the cathedral’s staff. In January, the Rev. Sandra Casey-Martus and the Rev. Nathaniel W. Pierce began their ministries with the cathedral. “I am thrilled to welcome Sandy and Nathaniel who bring a combined 60 plus years of ordained ministry to Trinity Cathedral,” said Powell.
In her role of assistant dean at Trinity, the Rev. Casey-Martus will invite, educate and accompany parishioners on their spiritual journeys. She will work to prayerfully discern Trinity’s needs and offer spiritual formation programs and that are relevant, meaningful, challenging and fun.
The Rev. Casey-Martus recently retired and moved to Easton in July completing her last seven years as rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Wimberley Texas. Casey-Martus has served parishes in Wyoming, California, and three in Texas. Called initially by now retired +Bishop John S. Thornton to plant St. Francis of the Tetons Episcopal Church in Alta Wyoming, and found the Alta Retreat Center (as an outreach mission of the parish) she served with the (now) +Right Rev. Eugene Sutton, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, on the late +Thomas Keating’s Contemplative Outreach’s National Formation/Faculty and Retreat Leadership Teams. Prior to ordination in 1996, she spent twenty-four years as an Air Force wife, and while stationed at the Pentagon lived in Silver Spring and taught theology at the Stone Ridge Country Day School in Bethesda.
For many years as an adjunct faculty member of the Seminary of the Southwest, Sandy introduced seminaries and laity to the history, theory, art, and practice of Christian contemplative prayer. Her courses included ten day silent retreats held at the Alta Retreat Center in Wyoming and Wellsprings Conference Center in Blanco, Texas. After completing ten years of parish/retreat ministry nestled in the foothills of the Grand Tetons, Sandy received the Seminary’s Hal Brook Perry Award for Outstanding Alumni Service even as she set her sails in response to a new call to serve All Saint’s Church in Austin, Texas! Her passion for teaching, preaching, and praying continues to this day. The Christ Centered Prayer, Sandy’s simplification of ancient contemplative practice, is now the focus of her teaching and its fruit finds concrete expression in her relationships, interpretation of the gospels, preaching and writings.
Sandy is a published author and Co-Founder of the Contemplative Invitation Teaching. She holds a Bachelor of Science and Masters of Education from Springfield College in Massachusetts, a Masters of Theological Study from Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas, and a Certificate of Independent Theological Study from the Seminary of Southwest in Austin, Texas.
Her recent books co-authored with Carla Mancari, can be found on Amazon: The Lessons: How to Understand Spiritual Principles, Spiritual Activities, and Rising Emotions (Vol. 1. Vol. 2 Second Edition), Your “Other Heart”: The Best Kept Secret, Christ Centered Prayer: Revelation—Strait Gate and Narrow Way (second editions), and The Disciple’s Consent: When Jesus is the Guide (Vol. 1-2).
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The Rev. Nathaniel W. Pierce, as the cathedral’s first resident theologian, will preach several times a year and contribute articles to the cathedral’s newsletter. “We are delighted that Fr. Pierce’s remarkable gifts will now be included in our cathedral’s ministry,” said the Very Rev. Powell. “His 52 years of experience will be a blessing for us all.”
“I feel honored,” Fr. Pierce commented on his new appointment. “Today theological reflection and spiritual growth are so important. I am delighted to have this opportunity to work collaboratively with Dean Powell and the cathedral’s congregation.”
A major focus of Pierce’s years of ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church has been hospital chaplaincy. He served as the Protestant Chaplain at Boston’s Children’s Hospital in 1990. He initiated the on-call Chaplaincy program at the Dorchester General Hospital in 1991 and continued to serve in that volunteer ministry for the Shore Health System until 2015 when the program was abolished.
Fr. Pierce is Board Certified as a Clinical Chaplain and Pastoral Counselor by the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy. He currently serves as the Convener of the Easton Chapter of CPSP.
He was awarded the M.Div. degree by the Church Divinity School in Berkeley, CA, in 1972. Simultaneously he earned his Master of Arts degree in Theology from the Graduate Theological Union. He was accepted into the ThD program at the GTU but chose parish ministry instead.
Fr. Pierce was ordained an Episcopal Priest in 1973 and ministered to congregations in California, Idaho, and Massachusetts before coming to the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1991. He is the co-author of the book, The Voice of Conscience: A Loud and Unusual Noise (Charles River Press, 1989) and numerous articles published in various national journals. He has also been honored as a gifted preacher within the Episcopal Church.
Since his arrival on the Eastern Shore, Pierce has served Episcopal churches in Cambridge, Chestertown, Denton, Earleville, East New Market, Ocean City, Quantico, St. Michaels, Tunis Mills, and Trappe. Currently he is the Vice-President of Province III, a consortium of thirteen Episcopal Dioceses in the Mid-Atlantic region.
He was profiled in a front page story in The Washington Post on October 12, 1999. The article described Pierce as “a liberal minded priest who landed in Maryland by way of Boston and Berkeley…. [He] is affable and graying—not a picture of zealotry—but he is comfortable in controversy.”
When asked about what he sees as the future for Trinity Cathedral, Powell said, “Now in my 12th year of leadership as Dean of Trinity Cathedral, I feel more called than ever to open our doors in a post-Covid world to a wider range of spiritual seekers willing and able to draw from both Christian and non-Christian spiritual traditions.”
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