Transitions

THE REV. ANDREW T. GERNS

The Rev. Andrew T. Gerns joins St. John’s, Clearwater

The Rev. Andrew Gerns with wife Peg, son Rob and daughter Jamie.

THE REV. ANDREW T. GERNS JOINS ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH AS PRIEST-IN-CHARGE

CLEARWATER – The Rev. Andrew Timothy Gerns accepted a call from the vestry of St. John’s Episcopal Church to be their Priest-in-Charge.

Describing his work in a recent stewardship video, he said, “St. John’s is a lovely, lively, active parish with a real heart for the community. It is a parish that founded a remarkable Thrift Store ministry which provides a valuable service to many in our area, hosts a feeding program that delivers packages of fresh, nutritious food to those in need, seniors, and families struggling to make ends meet. The parish has one of the most engaging lay-led Bible Study programs I’ve ever seen, in addition to three choirs (voice, handbell, and the praise-band), there are many signs of energy, vitality, and creativity here.”

A life-long Episcopalian, Fr. Gerns was baptized at Truro Church in Fairfax, Virginia, and grew up in the Church of the Good Shepherd in Hartford, Connecticut and was involved in many youth and young adult ministries both within the Episcopal Church and in other Christian churches and groups such as Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. He attended Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, England, and the General Theological Seminary in New York City.

Following ordination in the Diocese of Connecticut, he served at St. Paul’s Church in Willimantic, which included work in a six day per week soup kitchen and an ecumenical chaplaincy at Eastern Connecticut State University in a partnership between the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich and the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut. He also served at Christ Church in Stratford, along with several other parishes, as interim pastor, and was Chaplain at Windham Hospital in Willimantic, Connecticut.

Beginning in 1992, he was Rector of Trinity Church, Parkersburg, in the Diocese of West Virginia, and starting in 1994 was Director of Pastoral Care at St. Joseph’s Hospital, also in Parkersburg. He also served that Diocese through the Ohio Valley Episcopal Cluster, and the River Bend Cluster, which were regional team ministries in the Diocese of West Virginia. He became a Board Certified Chaplain through the Association of Professional Chaplains in 1996, and a trained trainer in Critical Incident Stress Management through the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation in 1995. He was also trained as a disaster response chaplain with the American Red Cross.

His clinical training took him to a variety of hospitals, hospices, and ecumenical settings including The Nuffield Orthopedic Hospital in Nuffield, Oxfordshire, England, The Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, New Jersey, Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, the Windham Area Interfaith Ministry, Perception House (a residential drug and alcohol treatment program) in Willimantic, Connecticut, and Cabell-Huntington Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia. He also studied Medical Ethics at the West Virginia University School of Medicine.

From 2002 to 2021 he was the Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Easton, Pennsylvania. In the Diocese of Bethlehem, he was appointed Canon Pastor to the Bishop, served on several committees and commissions, including the Communications Commission, the Commission on Ministry, chaired the Evangelism Commission, and was President of the Standing Committee.