New vision, new priest | Emmanuel Episcopal Parish hires Reverend Berto Gandra, who has connections to Latino and LGBT communities

Berto is a native of Puerto Rico and speaks English, Spanish and French. He has been a priest for 22 years and served in the Dominican Republic, Belgium, Spain, Puerto Rico, and most recently at the Church of the Intercession in Harlem, New York City. Gándara has a bachelors of arts in philosophy and a masters in theology. He also obtained four other post-masters degrees from universities in Belgium, Spain, and New York

July 11, 2014 5:58 pm
Rev. Berto Gándara.
Rev. Berto Gándara.

The following was submitted by Emmanuel Episcopal Parish.

Emmanuel Episcopal Parish of Orcas Island is getting ready to welcome its new priest.

The Rev. Berto Gándara will begin his ministry on Sunday, August 17.  During the last year, under the leadership of interim priests Kate Kinney and the late Wray MacKay, Emmanuel entered a period of discernment to envision who God is inviting them to be now and in the coming years.

The church, faithful to their mission to “love God, God’s creation, and our neighbors as ourselves,” recognized a continued need to be a more open and loving community that makes old stories and symbols relevant to the present. Emmanuel intends to be a church that embodies flexibility and adaptability, openness to questions and a variety of worship styles, including experimental and innovative ones.

With this vision in mind, a search committee of the church, after interviewing several possible candidates, unanimously presented Gándara as the first choice to the vestry (board) of the church. The vestry subsequently voted unanimously to elect him as their next priest and pastor, a decision which was then endorsed by The Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel,  Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Western Washington (Diocese of Olympia).

Berto is a native of Puerto Rico and speaks English, Spanish and French. He has been a priest for 22 years and served in the Dominican Republic, Belgium, Spain, Puerto Rico, and most recently at the Church of the Intercession in Harlem, New York City. Gándara has a bachelors of arts in philosophy and a masters in theology. He also obtained four other post-masters degrees from universities in Belgium, Spain, and New York.

Gándara is passionate about parish ministry, contemplative spirituality, photography, drumming, Native American flute playing, inter-religious dialogue, and outreach, especially to the  LGBT and Latino community. He has shared his life for the past eight years with his spouse, the Rev. Hugh McPhail Grant, from Atlanta, Georgia, who is also an Episcopal priest. McPhail recently served as an associate priest at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields in New York City, and is a licensed clinical social worker, a wilderness spirituality guide, and a stewardship consultant.

The two are no strangers to Orcas Island, which they chose as their home base for a sabbatical year, thanks to the hospitality of close friends.

During this time Gándara was an English Language Learners volunteer at Orcas School and active in ecstatic dance, Bhajan chanting, drumming and meditation groups.

Gándara and McPhail will be arriving on Orcas on early August and have found a home in the Orcas Highlands neighborhood.