After over 20 years of pastoral ministry in non-denominational
churches in the US and Canada, plus over 3 years as
a full-time missionary, training pastors in Europe and
Asia, the Lord wonderfully led us back into pastoral
ministry with the Anglican Mission in America in 2005.
The story of God’s dramatic leading can be found
here.
We are grateful to be in the midst of the growth and
development of a local parish that has a passionate
commitment to prayer, authentic worship, spiritual transformation
and genuine community. We are also grateful to be part
of a group of people committed to representing Christ
with integrity as agents of his kingdom here in the
Chapel Hill / Durham area.
We are blessed with 3 sons and 2 daughters and our
first grandchild is on the way. Kent & Melissa still
live in Canada, where he is finishing law school, and
their child is due in March 2006. Ellen is busy as a
restaurant manager in Raleigh. Steven is married to
Courtney and they both teach in Asheville. Millie juggles
work, graduate classes and multiple creative avocations,
and Thomas is a freshman at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Sally is both a published author and a frequent speaker
at women’s conferences, but her greatest passion
in ministry is mentoring and teaching younger women.
Steve brings a commitment to biblical preaching and
strong leadership development to his ministry –
and he loves strategic planning, mentoring younger men
and building a climate for authentic relationships.
Our family moved to Chapel Hill in the summer of 2003
after spending the previous eighteen years in Little
Rock. While in Little Rock, we were part of a small
group which became St. Andrew's Church, a member of
the AMiA. We began attending Church of the Apostles
in Raleigh after moving to North Carolina and from that
congregation became a part of the small group which
is now All Saints.
We have three children, Chris at Davidson College,
Sarah at Duke University and Collin, a freshman in high
school. Wesley is a pediatric allergist and immunologist
at Duke University and Jan is a part-time staff attorney
with a federal agency in Raleigh.
During our time with St. Andrew's in Little Rock, we
were engaged in small group leadership and with local
outreach and hope to continue with these ministries
at All Saints.
We moved to the Chapel Hill/Durham area in 1983. Since
that time we have raised three children and rooted for
three NCAA national basketball championships. Our daughter
Kylan is a freshman at UNC, Bren, our oldest son, is
a sophomore at Durham Academy, and Kip is a freshman
at Pace Academy in Chapel Hill.
Having come to faith in Christ while involved in an
Episcopal Church over 25 years ago, we have hungered
for a church in this area that offered a rich liturgical
style of worship that is reverent and biblically sound.
Our prayers were answered in 2001 with the launching
of Church of the Apostles in Raleigh, the first AMiA
plant in this area. It has been even more exciting to
see God knit together a community of like minded believers
that he has called to launch All Saints Church.
Our prayer is that All Saints Church will present the
Gospel clearly and effectively and that we as a body
will demonstrate that Christ is alive and well in this
community.
We are both native North Carolinians who grew up, attended school, were married (over 35 years ago!), and raised our family in the Raleigh area. Our 2 sons, Matt and Daniel are both married, and have blessed us with grand-parenthood, having 4 sons between them. Professionally, Jim is a Project Manager for an AV Integration company in Raleigh, and Beth is the Catering Sales Manager at the Washington Duke Inn in Durham.
We have been blessed and spiritually nurtured by the rich traditions and reverent approach to our God's throne of grace as expressed by Anglicanism. During our journey of faith with God, we have been honored to serve in a number of roles – youth group leaders, home group leaders, missionary church planters in Ireland, the Missions Pastor at a Raleigh church. All along the way we have been humbled to work alongside wonderful men and women of God, and this role on the Pastoral Leadership Team of All Saints certainly continues that blessing. We are excited to be part of this growing church, and look forward to many, many years of living, loving, serving, and walking together as part of the All Saints family and this community.
Contact Jim at 919 302-5900, Beth at 919 302-5201, or either of us at bethandjim@gmail.com.
Bill and Maryann Roper
We are a 27 year story of a mixed marriage –
Bill from Alabama and very conservative Protestantism,
and Maryann from New Jersey and Roman Catholicism –
and feel very blessed to be a part of the launch of
All Saints Church.
Bill is dean of the UNC School of Medicine and CEO
of UNC Health Care, and Maryann is a former pediatric
oncologist, full-time mom, and part-time events planner
for Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill.
Will Roper is 16, and an 11th grader at Durham Academy.
We have been privileged to be members of several wonderful
congregations, including The Falls Church in Virginia,
The Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, and, most recently,
The Church of the Apostles in Raleigh. Bill has been
in lay leadership positions and has taught Bible classes,
Maryann has been involved in music and “miscellaneous,”
and together we have led a small groups ministry.
Inscribed in our wedding rings is John1:16, “From
the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing
after another,” and our lives have been marked
time and again by God’s good grace. Each of us
was raised in a Christian home and surrounded by godly
role models, and we each committed our lives to Christ
as children. We met as students at Wheaton College,
have been married for more than 18 years, and are blessed
with two children, MaryMac (15), and Hayes (11). Nathan
is a physician-researcher at Duke University Medical
Center in Infectious Diseases and International Health,
and Margaret teaches at The Trinity School of Durham
and Chapel Hill.
Residents of Durham, we come to All Saints having been
involved with Church of the Apostles in Raleigh since
its inception. God continues to bless us beyond measure,
and we are particularly grateful for the community of
believers that God is calling together to worship, to
love, and to serve at All Saints.
