Sunday Worship 8, 9:30, & 11am · Details

  545 S. East Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois 60304  ·   708-386-5613  ·     Give

St. Christopher's Oak Park
  • Welcome
  • Worship
    • Service Times
    • Music
  • Learn
    • Adults
    • Children & Youth
  • Serve
    • Serve St. Christopher's
    • Serve the Community
  • Gather
  • Connect
    • News & Events
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Visitor Information
    • Calendar
    • Building Usage
    • Ministry Scheduler Pro
    • Breeze Member Login
    • Give
    • Contact Us
  • Give

Leadership

Clergy & Staff

The Rector is elected by a vestry with the bishop‘s approval, thereby having tenure. The responsibility for the conduct of worship and the spiritual jurisdiction of the parish are vested in the rector, subject to the Rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer, the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church and the diocese, the pastoral direction of the bishop, and the Religious Corporation Laws of the State of Illinois. The Parish Administrator ensures that everything runs smoothly. Our Director of Children and Youth leads our Sunday School, oversees our Youth Group, and creates formation opportunities for people of all ages . Our Organist/Choirmaster chooses music and leads the choir of our Rite II 11 am Choral Eucharist. Our Director of Music for Children and Families chooses and teaches music for our Rite III 9:30 am Contemporary Wiggles service and creates learning opportunities for music instruction.

Kevin M. Goodman
Interim Rector
|
Uziel Hernández Martinez
Parish Administrator
|
Jen Enriquez
Director of Children & Youth Ministry
|
Richard Sobak
Choir Director
|
Christa Creps
Musician for Children & Families
|
Bob Wyatt
Priest Associate
|

Kevin M. Goodman

Interim Rector

I love serving as a vocational interim in the Diocese of Chicago. I am from New Orleans, the city of great coffee, delicious food, the Saints, and the birthplace of Jazz. I grew up in the Episcopal Church loving the encouragement to keep asking questions throughout my faith journey. Prior to being ordained priest, I was a television producer/director, loving documentary work and public narrative productions.

I believe it is the interim’s job to hold up a mirror to the congregation revealing truth, ministry possibilities, and discovering together things that may be getting in the way of spiritual growth. I believe that it is the interim’s job to look toward God’s story, told in the Bible, told through scripture’s sacred story, to help a congregation find their place within that story. I am influenced by the scholarship of Marshall Ganz and Cesar Chavez and approach interim ministry from the ideas that Ganz and Chavez put forward through their work they call “Public Narrative.”

The interim period creates a gap of liminal space during a congregation’s ministry. Gaps create space for opportunity. Gaps make room for change and discernment. Gaps provide new views through old windows. Gaps invite changes and sometimes difficult decisions. In the gap, things happen. We must be mindful of the gaps in our lives. I love Walt Disney World, monorails, film, and Kate Bush andI live in Edgewater, Chicago with my husband of twenty-two years pastry-chef extraordinaire Anton Goodman.


Uziel Hernández Martinez

Parish Administrator

I am the Parish Administrator, and my job is to manage the church office and premises. I collaborate closely with the rector and church staff to provide clerical and liturgical support. I ensure parish administration functions effectively.

I am originally from Tabasco, Mexico and am the eldest of three children. I moved to the United States along with my family in my early teens to the north central side of Tennessee, where I lived for ten years before moving to the Chicago area to pursue theological higher education. I have a B.S. in Philosophy and Religion (2011) from the University of Tennessee Southern and a M.Div (2014) from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. Currently, I am a student of Pre-Med at Northern Illinois University and pursuing entering medical school to become an orthopedic surgeon. I am a member and attend St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.


Jen Enriquez

Director of Children & Youth Ministry

I am passionate about exploring what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the world today. To this end, I created Peace Camp for kids in 2017, and in 2021 developed a way to talk with children and adults about racism through the lens of faith. I am an attorney by formal education and have pursued multiple opportunities to enhance my call to lay ministry. My family includes husband Tony, middle schoolers Eddie and Luke, plus 3 wiener dogs. I love to get my hands dirty in my garden in my spare time.

Richard Sobak

Choir Director
I joined St. Christopher’s as Organist-Choirmaster in 1994, after working several years as a full-time music director for churches in the Archdiocese of Chicago. I have taught vocal and choral music in public and private schools in Indiana and Illinois, and recently retired from Oak Brook, IL public schools. My responsibilities at St. Christopher’s include planning and performing music for the 11:00 a.m. service and special evensong services. I choose choral and hymn repertoire for its liturgical, seasonal, and musical sensibilities. I select music and texts that will primarily reflect upon the scriptural texts and the liturgical season of any given Sunday. I use a variety of sources for hymnody and service music, drawing from hymnals such as Wonder, Love, and Praise, Lift Every Voice and Sing, Voices, Found, and Taizé.

I hold degrees and certificates from Oberlin College Conservatory, Kent State University, American Conservatory, The Royal School of Church Music (Croyden, England), and the Choral Music Experience Institute.

Christa Creps

Musician for Children & Families

I am a classically trained singer who started my career singing opera and ended up touring the world in my punk rock folk band Puerto Muerto. We were small but mighty. After my son was born, I stopped touring but met many interesting people at my meal program “Community Dinners” which I started in 2013. I have always been passionate about building community because it is such a vital part of our spiritual growth.

Bob Wyatt

Priest Associate

I’m a retired priest who loves serving at St. Christopher’s, St. Mark’s Glen Ellyn, and other parishes as needed. If I do anything right, it’s to my credit; if I make a mess, it’s the rector’s fault. I love preaching and presiding, and I’m a nonprofit board addict. Currently, I’m on the board of Cicero Family Service, which provides free therapy for those without means, and CREO DuPage, a pre-college enrichment program for Latinx students at St. Mark’s. Previously, I’ve been on staff at Transfiguration Palos Park, Grace Hinsdale, and St. Mark’s, and rector of St. Helena’s Burr Ridge.

After a wonderful newspaper and academic career, I was ordained in 2004. Prior to ordination, I was director of communication research and professor at Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro. I was also survey research adviser to the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt for five years and book review editor for the Nashville Tennessean for 15 years.

Besides serving on boards (Bishop and Trustees; Episcopal Charities; St. Augustine College; Seabury-Western), I enjoy fiddling with computers, photography, and travel with my sardonic wife, Terri Lackey. She’s retired director of communication for the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.



Vestry

The leadership is made up of the rector, wardens and vestry members of a parish. The wardens and vestry are the official representatives of the parish in the absence of a rector. The wardens work with the rector to steer the mission, ministry and outreach of St. Christopher’s and assure we are good stewards of money in order to do it.

Deb Maue
Senior Warden
Mark Schneider
Junior Warden
Marty Dunlavey
Treasurer
John Hillman
Clerk
Paul Clark
(2024)
Kelly Clissold
(2024)
Peter Curtain
(2023)
Blaise Denton
(2025)
Julie Dulski
(2025)
Thomas Gary
(2023)
Gretchen Straw
(2023)
Chloe White
(2025)

Deb Maue

Senior Warden

Mark Schneider

Junior Warden

Marty Dunlavey

Treasurer

John Hillman

Clerk

Paul Clark

(2024)

Kelly Clissold

(2024)

Peter Curtain

(2023)

Blaise Denton

(2025)

Julie Dulski

(2025)

Thomas Gary

(2023)

Gretchen Straw

(2023)

Chloe White

(2025)

SEARCH COMMITTEE

The Search Committee is a temporary task force working on behalf of the Vestry to search and find the church’s Rector.

  • Emily Culbertson, co-chair
  • Marily Huebel, co-chair
  • Maya Ganguly
  • Mary Kay Tobin
  • Peter Walters
  • Bill Urso

Contact Us: [email protected]org

MINISTRY CONTACTS

  • Altar Guild - Peter Walters
  • Ministry Scheduler Pro - Trish Joy
  • Healing Ministry - Mary Kay Tobin
Share this page: Leadership
Welcome Leadership Mission Statement Who We Are

Submit a Prayer Request

Sunday Worship

  • 8:00 AM Contemplative Eucharist, Rite I
  • 9:30 AM Contemporary Wiggles Eucharist, Rite III
  • 11:00 AM Choral Eucharist, Rite II

Location

545 S. East Avenue · Oak Park, Illinois 60304
708-386-5613


Connections

Diocese of Chicago

The Episcopal Church

  View Entire Post

Service Times

Sunday Worship

  • 8:00 AM Contemplative Eucharist, Rite I
  • 9:30 AM Contemporary Wiggles Eucharist, Rite III
  • 11:00 AM Choral Eucharist, Rite II

Location

St. Christopher's Oak Park
545 S. East Avenue
Oak Park, Illinois 60304

Contact Us
708-386-5613

Newsletter Signup

Welcome Life Events Children & Youth Leadership The Episcopal Church

We look forward to welcoming you to St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, an open and affirming congregation in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

We pray that you will find here the love that is Christ’s law – love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things – knowing that God’s love is bigger than anything we can ask or imagine.

Learn More Visitor Card

In the Episcopal Church, we call holy life events sacraments. We acknowledge that God is present in every occasion of our lives. Some of these we mark together with special celebrations of worship to highlight the ways in which God is always at work throughout our life’s eventss. As Episcopalians, we believe that these observations reveal God's grace to us in new ways and call them sacramental.

Baptism Confirmation/Reception Marriage Burial

We have created a Sunday morning for Children and Families beginning with worship at 9:30AM. Then, immediately following snack, the young people participate in the Whole People of God lectionary-based Sunday School curriculum, so that everyone in the church is reflecting on the same scripture. Children engage the themes and stories of the day in our 9:30 worship. Art, activities like acting out the story, and music reinforce what happens in worship.

Learn More

In the Episcopal Church the people of God, ordained through baptism, are to be ministers of Jesus wherever they live, work, and play. The Priest is the pastor to the people who proclaims the gospel; administers the sacraments; and blesses and declares pardon in the name of God.

Supporting the Ministers of God are the Staff and Vestry. The Rector is elected by a vestry with the bishop‘s approval.

Meet Our Leadership

We as Episcopalians believe in a loving, liberating, and life-giving God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. St. Paul's is part of the Episcopal Church, a church that is both rich with ancient tradition and relevant to life in the 21st century. We believe that God loves you - no exceptions.

We believe in following the teachings of Jesus Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection saved the whole world.

Learn More
Give Now Pledge

Everything on our beautiful church campus is paid for by the people of St. Christopher’s. Our worship, our music, our Sunday School, our outreach, our staff, our buildings and every candle is made possible by the generosity of our church members, friends, and supporters. Please give now so that we can continue to build the Kingdom of God together.

Give Now

The people of St. Christopher’s are our service ministers and, working with the staff and vestry, are full stewards of the mission and ministry of our congregation. Steward is an ancient concept. A steward is a person who is responsible for someone else's property, finances, or affairs.

Make a Pledge Pay My Pledge

Learn More