Welcome Our New Deacon-In-Training: Rebekah Hays Estera!
St. Mary’s is blessed to have fabulous deacons in our congregation, and as such, we have a responsibility to prepare other deacons for the wider church. This Fall we are honored and excited to have among us a Deacon-In-Training, Rebekah Hays Estera. Rebekah will be learning the ins and outs of being a deacon in a parish of our size while she participates in Sunday liturgies and certain ministries. She will begin her time with us on Sunday, Sept. 11 and conclude her formal time at St. Mary’s this December. Here is a little bit about her:
Hi, I'm Rebekah Hays Estera. I am a second year student at the Episcopal School for Deacons and I am so excited to spend the next few months with you here at St. Mary the Virgin as part of my Mentored Experiential Learning (sometimes called field education). My sending parish (or mission) is Saints Elizabeth and Andrew in South San Francisco/San Bruno, where I led the children's ministry and one of our outreach ministries with the local shelter. Most recently, I spent several months learning from our siblings at Holy Child & Saint Martin in Daly City. I feel called to the diaconate because my heart breaks for the hurt of this world and I also am excited to build the kin-dom of God on earth as it is in Heaven with my siblings in Christ. That moment where the Gospel is brought down into the midst of the people because it is just too special to be kept at a distance -- that is my favourite part of liturgy. Baking is a spiritual practice for me and I hope we can share a bit of that in our time together. My partner and I have been married for about 11 years and we have a wonderful, precocious 6 year old. In our free time, we love to spend time outside, try new foods, visit museums, and borrow entirely too many library books.