The Rev. Claire Nevin-Field Named 21st Rector of St. Peter’s Church

The Rev. Claire Nevin-Field has been named the 21st Rector of St. Peter’s Church in Philadelphia. Nevin-Field, who has served as Assistant Rector at St. Peter’s Church since 2006, will assume her responsibilities as rector on August 1, 2015.

“It is with great happiness and also with a profound sense of history that the Vestry of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church announces that it has called the Rev. Claire Nevin-Field to be our next rector,” said Rick Fitzgerald, Rector’s Warden. “Claire’s work with us has demonstrated a love of children, an appreciation of the importance of great liturgical music, a commitment to thoughtful, well-crafted preaching, and a vision of the church as the body of Christ committed to serving others.”

Nevin-Field will be the first female rector in the church’s history. She succeeds the Rev. Ledlie I. Laughlin, who has been named rector of St. Columba’s Church in Washington, DC.

Nevin-Field is originally from the northeast of England, but spent most of her childhood in northern Delaware. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Delaware and her Master of Science in Nursing with a certificate in Nurse-Midwifery from the University of Pennsylvania. While working as a nurse-midwife, Nevin-Field experienced a reawakening of a call she had experienced earlier to ordained ministry. She observes that while the physicality of being a nurse-midwife and a priest may be different, the experience of being with people during key moments of life, accompanying them and witnessing to new life within them, is similar.

Nevin-Field attended Lutheran Theological Seminary for two years and The General Seminary of the Episcopal Church for one year, receiving a Master of Divinity degree from General Seminary. She has a passion for outreach, particularly for feeding people and for Christian education. In addition to her work at St. Peter’s, Nevin-Field serves as Chair of the Diocesan Commission on Ministry, the Church Training Deaconess House Board, and the Board of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. She lives in West Chester with her husband, Andrew, a systems manager at Vanguard, but will be moving to Philadelphia soon. Her eldest daughter Rachel is a graduate student at Yale and her younger daughter, Ellie, will be attending graduate school at Georgetown University in the fall.

“I am thrilled and excited to accept the vestry’s call to be the 21st Rector of St. Peter’s Church,” said the Rev. Nevin-Field. “I love St. Peter’s. I love our openness, our generosity, our curiosity, our passion for feeding people, our willingness to approach the world with arms extended and give ourselves away, and our bold and creative spirit. It will be a joy to work with you, to discern where the Holy Spirit will lead us and go there together.”