Dear friends,

It is my great delight to announce that Luke Abdow has accepted the call to serve as Program Director for the Seattle Service Corps and as staff support for the vibrant 20s & 30s ministry group.

Luke is a native of Massachusetts and served as a fellow in an Episcopal Service Corps program in Boston for two years, 2016 to 2018. Prior to that he served in the Fulbright Scholars program as an English teacher in Senegal, and he has experience as a community organizer, a food service worker, and a chef and baker. He comes to Saint Mark’s from nearby North Bend, where he is the Food Services Director and Head Chef at Rainbow Lodge Retreat Center. He was a researcher and co-author of the Racial Justice Audit of the Episcopal Church, which is part of the broader church-wide initiative, Becoming Beloved Community: The Episcopal Church’s Long Term Strategic Commitment to Racial Healing, Reconciliation, and Justice. He is a 2014 graduate of Tufts University with a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies and Community Health. He will begin his role at Saint Mark’s Cathedral in early October.

Mr. Abdow’s call is the culmination of a robust search process in which an extraordinary committee of gifted leaders of Saint Mark’s diligently worked with an excellent pool of applicants, prayerfully discerning unanimous support for Luke’s call. I am very grateful to committee members Scott Hulet, Fraser Reach, Hannah Hochkeppel and Lynette Hatscher, and to Canon Barrie for guiding the process. I hope you will join me in thanking them for their good work, and please join me in welcoming Luke to the Saint Mark’s community. I am,

Gratefully

The Very Rev. Steven L. Thomason
Dean and Rector