If your are looking for someone devoted to serving God through prayer and service to others; and your church values pastoral care, outreach, preaching, teaching and excellent administration – you are not likely to find a better candidate than Fr. Rex.
The first thing anyone meeting him sees is a kind, gentle, loving giant of a man to whom children and adults are immediately attracted. We started loving him dearly more than 15 years ago and our appreciation for this unique person’s many qualities has not yet stopped growing.
He was not ordained until later in life than is normal. It took survival of many dangers, enjoying many good times, suffering through many adversities and, yes, even miracles for him to answer God’s call to fully devote his life to ministry in the church. However, in the relatively short time since his ordination as an Episcopal priest he has been in charge of three churches (including one that he started) and they have all experienced exceptional growth rates while he was there.
It is hard to decide what we most appreciate about him but it is probably his self-sacrificing pastoral care. A few years ago one of us was taken to a hospital about 70 miles away for care beyond what the local hospital was equipped to handle. When he heard of this, he dropped everything and traveled for about six hours during a very severe winter storm to bring a prayer shawl he had blessed and to pray with me in the hospital.
However, exceptional personality characteristics are not all he has to offer. His ability to combine theology, spirituality, evangelism and his own diverse experiences into his preaching and teaching makes him one of the best.
Too often we have noticed that Episcopal clergy are not prepared with administrative skills and churches do not value them until things go wrong. We have lived in several different places and know of many churches (including ones in which we were very active) where serious administrative error was behind the failure of Rectors or Vicars. We therefore believe Fr. Rex’s past management experience is a strong asset that should not be overlooked.
We also cannot help but include the fact that he is blessed with a beautiful, lovely, talented wife that we also love dearly, always there supporting him.
Martha and Merritt Singer
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