June 21, 2025
I am delighted to announce that the St. Mark’s vestry has called, and The Very Reverend Kirsten Snow Spalding has accepted, our call to be the next rector of St. Mark’s!
I’d like to thank all the members of our search committee who worked long and hard reviewing and contacting numerous highly qualified candidates who expressed interest in coming to St. Mark’s. Special thanks to the co-chairs, Anne Callahan and Peter Kidder.
I also want to recognize our vestry, including last year’s outgoing class, who also worked long and hard, reviewing our finalists and participating in many large and small group meetings with them on-site. I especially want to call out our amazing outgoing wardens Romain Kang and Brie Linkenhoker.
Below you will see Rev. Kirsten’s bio and personal video greeting to St. Mark’s.
With joy and thanksgiving for the wonderful community that is St. Mark’s, and looking forward to continued spiritual growth and shared ministry together with Rev. Kirsten,
Jonathan Luk
Senior Warden
Introducing the Eighth Rector of St. Mark’s:
The Very Rev. Kirsten Snow Spalding
My spiritual path is the way of relationships – with God, family, and neighbors near and far. I am committed to racial and social justice, environmentalism, and sustainability. I write, preach and work on topics of spiritual growth, living into our baptismal covenant, and experiences of God’s grace in our lives.
In addition to my parish work, I am currently a member and formerly chair of the DioCal Executive Council. I currently chair the Diocesan Program and Budget Committee, preparing a budget for the 2025 Diocesan Convention. I am a member of The Episcopal Church Executive Council Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility.
I come to St. Mark’s from the Church of the Nativity in San Rafael, California, where I was rector for ten years. I have been a bi-vocational priest, with a second job as Vice President of Ceres Investor Network on Climate and Sustainability, where I worked with global investors on climate change, biodiversity loss, human rights, and water.
Prior to my work at Nativity and Ceres, I have had jobs in government, as an academic, as a lawyer and as labor leader. I am married to Dr. Joseph Lough, a historian, and have two grown sons, Averil Lough and Macy Lough. I love backpacking, cooking, dress design and gardening.
Watch An Introductory Video from Rev. Kirsten
Video Transcript:
Faithful people of St. Mark’s,
I am so happy to have been called to be your new Rector. My name is Kirsten Spalding.
For me, this mutual discernment has been rich and prayerful. In your parish profile and my interviews with your search committee, I have heard that you are a growing congregation with spiritual and theological depth, a commitment to beautiful worship, an active youth and family ministry and a passion for outreach and social justice ministry. You have incredible resources, with an energetic staff, faithful assisting clergy, a rota of extraordinary preachers, and a fantastic vestry and group of lay leaders. I have seen how active your campus is with so many groups using your community and sanctuary spaces. I was so impressed by the thoughtful questions you asked me and the care your search committee and vestry have obviously taken in reflecting together on this call.
For me, this call is an opportunity to devote the next phase of my ministry to building God’s church. For the past ten years, I have been bi-vocational—leading a sustainability non-profit full-time and serving as rector of Nativity, a small and wonderful church in Marin County, three-quarter time. I will miss the people I have worked with in my secular job and the faithful people I have ministered with in Marin. But while I am sad to be leaving my community in Marin, I trust that God is working among them and that with God’s help they will thrive and grow there. I am full of hope about what will be possible with all of you. I am just so excited about this opportunity to bring all of my energy and focus to Church-building with you.
My spiritual path is a way of relationships. I trust that in relationship with all of you, we will hear together what God is calling St. Mark’s to be and do. I am looking forward to praying with you, to meeting in worship and sharing God’s Word and sacraments. I have already experienced your extraordinary hospitality and fellowship. I am looking forward to studying Scripture together and expanding and deepening our social justice and outreach ministries. I know that in relationships of pastoral care for one another, we will come to know Jesus’ healing.
I am happy to continue my ministry with the Diocese of California. I am currently serving on the Diocesan Executive Council and chairing the Program and Budget Committee. Obviously, I don’t yet really know you at all, but I am down for the journey. I trust that as we get to know one another, God will present us with opportunities to grow. I am prepared to listen first—to all of you and to God, so that our work together will be grounded in love for God and one another.
The Vestry and I have agreed (with the Bishop’s consent) that I will start at St. Mark’s on October 1 st . Over the next couple of months, I will be preparing Nativity for this transition and handing off my work at my non-profit to extraordinary colleagues. It is my plan to be on the East Coast visiting family and winding up my secular job in the month of August. In September, I will say goodbye to Nativity, pack up my house in Berkeley and prepare it for renters. I’ll move into the Rectory with my husband, Dr. Joe Lough who is a historian with a focus on economic history and church history and my 24 year- old son, Macy Lough who is a computer vision developer with an AI start-up in San Mateo. My older son, Averil Lough, is 26 and he’ll continue to live and work in the East Bay, close enough for us to see one another often.
Between now and my arrival, I will be praying with you all.
Ever creative God, I give thanks for this opportunity to be in ministry with you, the people of St. Mark’s. I pray that your leaving taking with Father Nick will be filled with love and appreciation for his ministry among you. I pray that as you look forward, you will feel the Holy Spirit’s stirrings and that you will allow hope in God’s goodness and justice to guide your anticipation. Where there are places of anxiety or pain, I pray that you will know Jesus’ companionship and healing. I look forward to our coming together with joy and gratitude for God’s abundance in my life. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, we pray. Amen.