About Rob
If you do not belong to a church, and especially if your spiritual path is unconventional, you do not always know where to turn when you need the support or services of a minister or priest for the important passages in your life. I would be pleased and honored to provide you with those services.
I celebrate marriages for all committed couples, baptisms and naming ceremonies, funerals, memorial services, companion animal blessings, and home blessings and clearings. I have 30 years' experience as a pastoral counselor and spiritual director, and over 35 years' experience working with hauntings as a paranormal investigator.
I am an independent Methodist minister a published author and poet, and student and teacher of the Christian Inner tradition. I live in the town of Sonoma, California, with my partner of 23 years, David.
As a bishop of the New Methodist Conference, I provide pastoral and episcopal oversight to clergy and communities who seek it.
My Credentials
- B.A., University of Connecticut
- M.Div. (Master of Divinity), Duke University
- M.A.R. in Pastoral Counseling, Iliff School of Theology
- Clinical Pastoral Education, hospice chaplaincy
- Ordained an Anglican Deacon and Priest
- Received into vows in the Companions of St. Brigid
- Consecrated a Bishop in the apostolic succession
- Received Usui Reiki levels I, II, and Master
- Co-founder and Bishop, New Methodist Conference
My Books
The Complete Apostolic Succession, 11th ed., 2012
My ongoing research into independent episcopal lineages
The Banner Book, Abingdon Press, 1986
A Short Bio
I was born and raised a New Englander. My home town Enfield, Connecticut has deep historical roots to the earliest colonial days. Part of my family descends from the First Nations peoples (the Abnaki) of northern New England. In an irony of history, the Abnaki branch of my family tree killed members of the English colonial branch of my family tree at the "Deerfield Massacre" in 1704.
I earned my B.A. at the University of Connecticut in 1978, with an independent major in the social sciences, and a minor in classical Greek. During my university days, I discovered the Wesleyan tradition, and left my Puritan roots behind, joining the United Methodist Church. I earned my M.Div. at Duke University Divinity School in 1981. It was at Duke that I first discovered, by necessity, the path of the Exile: being faithful to the Living Christ, but rejected by the mainline churches. For me, the issue was sexuality, but I found many fellow travellers in Exile due to divorce, gender, struggles with substance abuse - all the many ways that the organized churches refuse community. I embraced the path of the Exile, and left the United Methodist Church and mainline denominational Christianity behind me.
After taking a few years off in rural New Mexico, building furniture and beginning a contemplative practice, I earned a Masters in Pastoral Counseling in 1986 at Iliff School of Theology, in Denver. Additionally, I completed a year of Clinical Pastoral Education, focusing on hospice and eldercare chaplaincy. But as a Gay man I still found the doors to full-time professional ministry closed to me.
In 1996 I discovered a new option for ministry and joined the Evangelical Anglican Church in America (EACA). I was ordained an Anglican deacon and priest in 1997, and in 1998 I was received into vows in the Companions of St. Brigid, a non-residential religious Order within the EACA. The EACA was founded to make a home and empower Exiles for ministry; this vision and vocation completely transformed my understanding of being church and doing ministry, of taking the path of Christ in the margins.
In 2001 I was called to the lead the newly forming Free Episcopal Church, and was consecrated a bishop in the historic episcopate. After several years of leading this community, in 2004 I recognized the Spirit's invitation to undertake a journey of renewal and return to my Wesleyan spiritual roots. I resigned as bishop and passed on the mantle of leadership to my elected successor.
I embraced the Spirit's leading to take the lessons learned about being church and doing ministry as Exiles back into a Wesleyan context. I was privileged to participate in the creation of the New Methodist Conference in 2005, as an oasis for fellow Exiles and non-traditional Christians. I am honored to serve as a Conference bishop.
Like most clergy in the Exile, I am bi-vocational, earning my living as a Realtor® after retiring from a career as a business consultant.