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Associate
Rector
 The Reverend Elizabeth G. Maxwell came to Holy Apostles
on May 1, 1989, to be associate rector of the parish and
program director of the Soup Kitchen. She served as
interim rector/executive director following Dr. Greenlaw's
retirement in July 2008, and now, with the arrival of Fr.
Glenn Chalmers as Holy Apostles' 14th Rector, she has
returned to her original role. Drawn at first by the
chance to work with the church's famous feeding program,
Liz soon came to love the congregation that is its sponsor
and source. Of her twenty years at Holy Apostles she
says, "It has been a great joy to me to be a part of a
community that dares to say "yes" to God's call, not only
to feed the poor but also to keep stretching, praying, and
discovering anew how we are to care for each other,
celebrate the mystery of God's presence, and practice the
radical hospitality of the gospel. Holy Apostles is a
parish of seekers and lovers, sometimes contentious,
quirky and worthy of the nickname 'wholly impossibles',
deeply faithful and vibrantly alive. The extended
community includes not only parishioners but the guests,
staff and volunteers of the soup kitchen as well. I have
had the amazing good fortune to work in a place that
continually calls, goads and invites me to grow and deepen
as a priest and as a human being."
At Holy Apostles, Liz particularly likes working with the
spiritual development of individuals and groups. She
oversees adult education, leads retreats, offers spiritual
direction, and has been a mentor to many seminarians and
interns. As a preacher, she enjoys poetry, story-telling
and re-telling, and sudden, surprising connections between
biblical texts and personal experience. She is nourished
by the richness of the liturgy and music at Holy Apostles,
has worked at making the language of our worship more
expansive and likes to experiment with ritual. She oversees
the aspects of the soup kitchen's ministry that complement
the daily meal: the counseling and referral program, the
volunteer program, such adjunct services as a mobile medical
clinic and a legal clinic, a drumming and art program, and
the soup kitchen writers' workshop. With Susan Shapiro, she
is the editor of an anthology of writing from the workshop
entitled Food for the Soul.
Several themes weave through Liz's life and ministry.
Journey is an important one, both inner and outer. This
includes curiosity about and respect for other cultures as
well as exploring the mysteries of soul. Another is a
commitment to social justice as an expression of the common
good, with the sense that it is often from the margins that
real insight and healing come. Increasingly passionate
about ecological issues, Liz is actively looking for greener
and more sustainable ways of living, thinking and praying,
both as an individual and in community. A cradle
Episcopalian, she says this about the Episcopal church:
"This is my home, and a richly fulfilling expression of
Christian faith for me. I cherish its sacramental life and
emphasis on incarnation and engagement in the world around
us. In the Episcopal church I am nourished by beauty and by
worship that involves all my senses, while at the same time
my mind is engaged and I am invited to question, discuss and
ponder. I am strengthened by communion with other
Christians across time and space (as well as here in this
wonderful Holy Apostles community!), and by the sense that I
am both formed by tradition and called to shape it. At the
same time, the church does not exhaust my experience of
God. I am open to the wisdom of many different faith
traditions, helped by meditative practice, and sustained by
the wild wonder of the natural world."
Liz grew up in a small college town in the piney woods of
east Texas. She is a graduate of Duke University and
Princeton Theological Seminary, and served for five years in
the Diocese of Newark before coming to Holy Apostles. More
recently, she completed training in depth psychology and
spirituality at the Blanton Peale Graduate Institute, and is
licensed as a psychoanalyst in New York State. She loves
the great energy, diversity, art, and food of New York City,
and also loves to escape to the wide open spaces. She
dances, hikes, kayaks, reads voraciously, cherishes her
friends, and lives in Chelsea with her dog, Scout- who often
accompanies her to Holy Apostles.
e-mail
Mother Maxwell
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