After an intensive 18 months of introspection and search, St. Mary of the Hills Episcopal Church has called the Rev. Andrew J. Hege of Lexington, Kentucky to be her next rector. In his announcement to the congregation, Sr. Warden Chip Myers characterized Fr. Andrew as “a passionate follower of Jesus, committed to the belief that we are all called to the holy work of sharing God’s love, mercy, and justice in the world.”
A native of Thomasville, North Carolina, Fr. Andrew is a graduate of Montreat College, Wake Forest University School of Divinity, and Virginia Theological Seminary. He has spent the past five years at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Lexington, KY, where he led the formation of a Justice Ministry team that brought together nearly 2,000 people from twenty congregations in that city, to work on the root causes of poverty and other community problems.
Fr. Andrew met his wife, Amanda, in Winston-Salem, where she was working with Second Harvest Food Bank while she was with the Episcopal Service Corps. Amanda Hege has recently completed her Master of Public Health Degree at the University of Kentucky, where she teaches courses on Hunger and Food Insecurity. The couple is excited to be moving to Watauga County to raise their toddler, Eleanor.
In his acceptance letter to the congregation, Fr. Andrew said, “St. Mary’s has a rich history of prayer and presence in the Blowing Rock community and is also a parish excited about the good future into which God is leading us. I look forward to growing with you in this new season of our life together.”
Fr. Andrew and his family expect to begin their life with St. Mary’s in June.
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