Welcome Rev. Christopher Hilton to St. Mark's!

I write to you with great excitement, having officially begun my curacy at St. Mark’s! This new season has been one that I have been eagerly awaiting for many years, and it is almost surreal that the moment has arrived. The celebratory atmosphere at our August 17th rally day was such a wonderful and hospitable welcome into what I anticipate will be very fruitful and formative beginning years of ministry. I speak on behalf of my whole family when I say that we feel very welcomed at St. Mark’s and look forward to getting to know you as we settle into this new place we call home. In my first week at St. Mark’s, I've attended vestry, spent time with the Holy Smokers Men’s Group, led three chapel services at All Saints, preached at the Tuesday Eucharist, and browned 40 pounds of ground beef! I’ve already added “chili-tide” as an unofficial liturgical season on my church year wall calendar. I can feel the excitement in this place and am energized to dive into the many ministries of this wonderful parish. I can feel the momentum and inertia that comes from a parish that is manifestly passionate about a church they love.

My curacy begins right on the heels of having spent the past 11 weeks working as a chaplain at MD Anderson Cancer Center in the Texas Medical Center. As a hospital that deals exclusively with cancer, almost every conversation was, by nature, down to the bare metal of reality. Life and death was the proverbial cloud hovering over every interaction in some way. And yet, the profound sense of faith, hope, charity, and resilience expressed by so many patients and their families in that place struck me anew day after day. I was often overwhelmed seeing that God truly works and meets people most powerfully in situations that would otherwise seem hopeless and impossible. In many ways, that experience was one where I saw the rubber of Christ’s love and mercy meeting the road time after time. Even in the midst of death and grief, I found myself returning to one of my favorite texts in our hymnbook (#355) where we sing, “All we go down to the dust; And weeping o’er the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!” My time at MD Anderson was one of the most formative experiences of my life and has deeply shaped my own pastoral heart in a way that I will be forever grateful for. There are so many patients whose stories will be tucked away deep in my heart for the rest of my priestly career. I hope to bring what I learned there into my ministry through the importance of learning each other’s stories, being a spiritual companion to those who are suffering, and constantly reminding ourselves that our love for each other is ultimately love for our Lord himself.