Parishioner named as St. Peter’s interim pastor

The vestry has announced that the Rev. Theodore Kanellakis, a parishioner, has been engaged as interim pastor. The former rector, the Rev. Dr. Ralph M. Moore Jr., retired in June after serving eleven years in the post.

As interim pastor, Kanellakis will perform clergy functions for the church, with the assistance of the Rev. Lee Karker, who presides over Wednesday morning services, and St. Peter’s deacon, the Rev. Isabel Polk.

NEXT STEPS FOR THE CHURCH

The Rev. Mary Ann Taylor, a search consultant endorsed by the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, will work with St. Peter’s vestry (the elected leadership team of parishioners) and the newly formed parish Discernment Committee to guide the church through the process of what Episcopalians refer to as “calling a new rector.”

Expected to take 12 to 18 months, the process will engage St. Peter’s parishioners and leadership in a self-study and exploration of its life as a church in preparation for hiring someone to be the new clergy leader.

The lengthy process does not change the work of the parish. During this discernment process, St. Peter’s will continue to minister in downtown Rockland: hosting free community lunches on Saturdays and Sundays prepared by St. Peter’s, other local faith communities, and nonreligious groups; hosting the Toy Library, which meets Thursday and Friday mornings in the parish hall; and welcoming a half-dozen community support groups that meet weekly on St. Peter’s campus.

MEET THE INTERIM PASTOR

A graduate of the Institute of Theology at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City, Kanellakis was ordained in 1982. He entered the priesthood while serving as a NYC police officer. After retirement from the NYPD as a lieutenant, he served as priest in charge of the Church of the Regeneration in Pine Plains, and then as pastor at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Tivoli, N.Y. Kanellakis also served on Diocesan Council and other committees in the Diocese of New York.

Since moving to Maine, he has served as a supply priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Maine around the Midcoast and farther afield.

Both in the Diocese of New York and in the Diocese of Maine Kanellakis has undergone training recommended by the Episcopal Church for interim clergy. While still in New York, he assisted two churches in calling new clergy to lead congregations. As interim pastor, Kanellakis is ineligible to become St. Peter’s permanent rector.
Native New Yorkers, Kanellakis and his wife, Susan Brooks Kanellakis, have vacationed annually in Maine since the early 1980s. They quickly settled on the Midcoast as their favorite destination, purchasing a home in 1998 and moving here permanently in 2004-5.

The Kanellakises have become enmeshed in Midcoast community life and are familiar figures on the benches at Camden Harbor; at the Pen Bay YMCA, where they are members; and around town as they walk Lola, their apricot standard poodle. Ted is on the Camden Budget Committee, and Susan is an avid gardener. Ted also sings lead voice in the Windjammer Barbershop Chorus, which performs in local concerts and for nursing home residents.

The Kanellakises’ daughter, Elizabeth, lives in Falmouth with her husband and two sons.