The Rev. Dr. Elaine Ellis Thomas
The Rev. Dr. Elaine Ellis Thomas was called as our rector effective July 1, 2025. Prior to that, she served as rector of All Saints, Hoboken, in the Diocese of Newark, NJ, since 2018. During her 7 1/2 years in Hoboken, she convened the Hoboken Clergy Coalition, served as chaplain of the Hoboken Fire Department, and sat on the board of the Hoboken Shelter and the Jubilee Center. She also served as president of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Newark, attended the 80th & 81st General Conventions of the Episcopal Church, and was a member of the Presiding Officers’ Working Group on Truth-Telling, Reckoning, and Healing which led to the creation of several churchwide bodies exploring how the Church heals the wounds of our history.
Elaine served as Associate Rector and Chaplain of Episcopal Student Ministries at St. Paul’s Memorial Church in Charlottesville, Virginia and was an organizing figure in the clergy response to the white supremacist events in the summer of 2017. She attended Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and was ordained in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, prior to which she was the director of Human Resources for Episcopal Community Services in Philadelphia, managing roughly half of the $10-million budget and serving as a member of the strategic leadership team. She was also an accomplished organist and choirmaster.
Elaine and Tim, a leadership consultant, have been married for almost 26 years. Their daughter Rachel lives in the Philadelphia suburbs, and Seth, their son, died by suicide in 2009. She and Tim share their household with their 132-pound Great Pyrenees, Ella, and both enjoy baseball, traveling, and going on adventures together.