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Be Part of the Parish Welcome Photo Album!

We are putting together an album of parishioners' names and faces to help the Keplingers get to know us. Please submit a photo along with a short paragraph telling about you and your family - hobbies, job, interests, travels, etc. Turn in your contribution at the Welcome Table or in the church office, or e-mail your photo and paragraph to Chris LaBour at celabour@aol.com. We really want to have everyone represented! Download a photo from your camera, print it up, write a paragraph and bring/send it in. The deadline is September 5, but sooner is always better!

Coffee Hours on Sunday, Sept. 12

Fr. Steve and Jean's first Sunday with us is September 12. We will celebrate with a bounteous coffee hour after both services. Please bring a special coffee hour treat to share on that day. Contact Joan Cooney to help with preparations at joan.cooney@comcast.net or 529-0711.

Southwestern Fiesta on Friday, Sept. 17 at 6:30 p.m.

Everyone is invited to a Southwestern Fiesta to welcome Fr. Steve and Jean Keplinger on Friday, September 17 from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. in McBride Hall. We will begin at 6:45 p.m. on the labyrinth with special entertainment by Poi-Zen. You won't want to miss the fire batons!

Dinner will be in McBride Hall, accompanied by a strolling Mariachi Band. A main course will be provided. Parishioners are asked to contribute appetizers, salads and side dishes with a southwestern theme. Please bring an appetizer if your last name begins with A-H, salad if your last name is I-R, and side dish if you are S-Z.

The meal will end with a special dessert auction with the proceeds going to a GSP fund selected by Fr. Steve. We are looking for twenty delicious desserts to auction off! If you would like to share a special treat, please contact Ann Bates in person or at rabatestucson@msn.com. The evening will close with a special Transition Ceremony held on the labyrinth at 9:00 p.m.

Conversation and Dessert with Fr. Steve and Jean

The major GSP ministry groups will host Conversation and Dessert with Fr. Steve and Jean on six Sunday evenings in September and October. Sign up to attend through the GSP office or at the Welcome Table on Sunday mornings. These meetings will take place in the Bloom Education Center from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. on the following dates:

Sept. 12 - Congregational Development and the OWel Team
Sept. 19 - Healing & Pastoral Care Ministries
Sept. 26 - Liturgy and Worship
October 10 - Adult Education
October 17 - Children and Youth Ministries
October 24 - Social Justice & Outreach

The Rev. Canon Gordon K. McBride, PhD, died Saturday, July 10, in Casper, Wyoming, of complications from pulmonary fibrosis. He was in Wyoming to attend a family wedding when he became ill. He had been a Tucson, Arizona, resident since 1985, serving as rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church 1985-1991 and Grace St. Paul's Episcopal Church, a new parish created by the merger of St. Paul's and Grace Episcopal Church, 1991-2008. He was 68.

McBride was born in the tiny mountain farming community of Heber, Utah, the eldest son of Hazel Alvira (Pace) and Frederick Gordon McBride. His parents were descended from Mormon pioneers: the Paces, who emigrated from England, were farmers and teachers who settled in Heber; the McBrides, from Scotland, worked the mines of Park City. Gordon grew up in the Salt Lake valley, where he attended Westminster College, graduating and marrying his classmate Anne Heck in 1965. While in college, he earned his pilot's license. He played drums professionally in a number of small jazz and pop combos from his mid-teens through his early twenties, when he left Utah to pursue graduate studies.

McBride earned an M.A. in history in 1966 from the University of Oregon. That same year his daughter Bonnie was born. He then took a faculty position at Eastern Oregon State, where he taught for three years. In 1969 entered the Ph.D. program in history at the University of Cincinnati, where he specialized in Tudor-Stuart England. His daughter Jennifer was born there in 1971. The family spent the 1972-1973 academic year in London, where McBride carried out dissertation research on English-Portuguese relations in the 16th and 17th centuries.

In 1973 McBride joined the History Department at his alma mater, Westminster College. While there, he completed his dissertation on "The Politics of Economic Expansion: English Economic and Diplomatic Relations with Portugal and Incursions into the Portuguese Overseas Empire." While at the College, he arranged and taught summer study programs in the UK. Gordon and Anne dissolved their marriage in 1977. His marriage the following year to Deborah Von Krum ended in divorce. It was out of the sorrow and self-reflection that followed that he first seriously considered a life of faith and found a spiritual home in the Cathedral Church of St. Mark.

McBride married Kari Boyd Rountree in 1979 and adopted her two children, Gretchen and Scott Anthony. That same year Gordon, Kari, and two friends formed Albion Travel Associates and led a series of tours to Europe 1979-1985. In 1980, he decided to seek ordination in the Episcopal Church. The following year he took a sabbatical leave from Westminster to attend Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. He was ordained deacon in 1983 and returned to the College, where he was elected chair of the faculty. He carried out his diaconate at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, where he was ordained priest in 1984. He was then invited to return to St. Mark's as a clergy affiliate.

In 1985 he was called as rector to St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Tucson, AZ. In 1991 he undertook the merger of St. Paul's with Grace Episcopal Church and became rector of the newly formed Grace St. Paul's Episcopal Church. During his tenure there, he led the parish to embrace progressive Christianity, to engage contemporary theologies and biblical studies, to address salient local and global issues, and to engage interfaith dialog. He was named honorary canon of the Diocese of Arizona and served as chair of the diocesan Commission on Ministry. On his retirement in 2008, the parish hall of Grace St. Paul's was named McBride Hall in his honor. Since then he has served as a priest affiliate of St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church. Over the past decade McBride also pursued his love of fiction and writing, publishing three novels: Flying to Tombstone (2002; 2nd ed. 2010), The Ghost of Midsummer Common (2008), and The Vicar of Bisbee (2010).

The funeral was Friday, July 16, at Grace St. Paul's Episcopal Church. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Rector's Discretionary Fund at Grace St. Paul's. Please include the notation "McBride memorial" on checks.

The Vestry is pleased to announce that the Rev. Stephen James Keplinger has accepted their call to serve as Rector of Grace St. Paul's. Fr. Keplinger (who likes to be called "Steve") has most recently served as Rector of St. David's Episcopal Church in Page, Ariz., (Diocese of Utah) since 2001. He and his wife Jean will begin their ministry at GSP in early September.

Born and raised in Baltimore, Steve spent the majority of his life in the state of Maryland, with a short stint in the mountains of West Virginia. All that changed after his first trip to the western United States, where he fell in love with the landscape, especially the red rock deserts of southern Utah and northern Arizona. After a raft trip down the Colorado, and his first night under a sky brilliant with thousands of stars, he determined to move west.

Nine months in southern California was followed by a move to St. George, Utah. Living between the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park, Steve spent much time in the midst of the desert landscape, writing about that experience for local papers and a few national magazines. During those years he was employed in administrative and sales positions, ending as sales manager for a printing company.

Steve is known for his love for the sport of baseball, especially the Baltimore Orioles. In 1989, he published The Comeback Kids, an emotional reaction to the 1989 season of the Baltimore Orioles and the community around them.

Steve's spiritual journey led him to the Episcopal Church in 1986. After growing up in the Roman Catholic tradition, it became obvious to him through a series of experiences at the Episcopal Church in St. George, that this was his home. After years of discernment, he entered Church Divinity School of the Pacific in the fall of 1997. He then spent two years of seminary commuting to the Episcopal Theological School in Claremont, Calif., before returning to CDSP to finish his studies. He completed his Master of Divinity program at the end of 2000 and was ordained in August 2001. He and his wife, Jean, began serving at St. David's in January 2001.

Steve has a passion for creative liturgy, social justice and outreach and church growth and development. Jean has many years of lay leadership experience in children and youth ministry. We look forward to the gifts they will offer us at GSP!