The Search Committee

Bill Porter

is an organist and harpsichordist, now semi-retired professor of organ, Eastman School of Music, having also taught at Oberlin College, New England Conservatory, Yale University and McGill University. He has been an Episcopalian since the age of 16, and has served as musician for churches in Oberlin, OH, West Haven, CT, Cleveland, OH, Boston, MA, and Montreal, QC. He has served on diocesan liturgy/music commissions in Ohio and Massachusetts. From 1990 until her death in 2014, he was married to Ellen Bradshaw Aitken, Episcopal priest, New Testament scholar, and Dean of Religious Studies, McGill University. He has been a member of Christ Church since 2015. He likes cats.

Pru Kirkpatrick

has been an Episcopalian all her life.  She met her husband David in church choir and they have raised their five kids to love music and singing!! John and Lydia are members of Schola and sing the service of Compline under the direction of Stephen Kennedy every Sunday night.  Pru and David sang in church choir for many years and Pru has returned to the group recently.

Pru and David arrived at Christ Church in 1995 with three young children and after a few years organized a youth group.  Pru sews and quilts and has a longarm quilter in her front living room.  She also bakes cookies for Compline receptions and cheerfully launders towels and aprons for Meal & More.

Carolyn Mauro

Carolyn is a Cradle Episcopalian and has called Christ Church home for nearly 30 years. It gives her great comfort to be a part of the Christ Church parish family, where she has served on, and was head of, the Altar Guild, was a member of the Vestry, and has been involved in other activities as well. She’s very happy to be part of this Search Committee. A lifelong resident of Upstate New York, she worked at the Rochester Chamber of Commerce for several years, including public relations; which coordinated the “I’d Rather Be in Rochester” PR campaign. She then spent several more years at Eastman Kodak Company in various roles, ultimately as Editor for Scientific Publications in the Research Labs. God’s creation, planet Earth, has become a special concern for her, and she advocates for reversal of the damage that has caused so much disruption to the plants and animals that were and are here.

Kyle Liddell

I was baptized and joined The Episcopal Church in my college parish in 2004 in Arkansas. In 2008 I married Kristy in that parish, and we moved to Rochester for graduate school. We joined Christ Church Rochester, and have attended since then, except for about two years when employment took us of the area. I currently work remotely as a software engineer and have previously worked for local companies for several years. I am a member of the parish choir, a compline usher, and serve on the Property committee, along with other parish volunteer tasks. Previously I was a warden. I enjoy early and electronic music, cooking, and computer and electronic games and projects.

Christopher Brennan

Born the youngest of five children to devout Roman Catholics, while in college Chris briefly considered a vocation to the priesthood, but decided he’d rather marry than be celibate. He graduated from St. John Fisher College, then pursued master degrees at SUNY Geneseo, and Colgate Rochester/ Bexley Hall/Crozer Theological Seminary.  He was an academic librarian by vocation, serving institutions in Rochester and New Brunswick, New Jersey. He retired from full-time employment in 2015, and is now employed (very part-time) in the Local History and Genealogy Division of Rochester Public Library. He is an avid genealogist. Chris was received into the Episcopal Church in 1989, while employed at Colgate Rochester. He married his wife Kathy in 1991 at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. They joined Christ Church Rochester in 2015 upon returning to the city from New Jersey.  Since 1989, he has served three Episcopal churches as lector, eucharistic minister, acolyte, vestry member, parish archivist/historian, and rector search committee member. In the latter capacity, he authored two previous parish profiles.

Mary Vukman

Who I am....I am a person who is thankful for a life lived in the presence of God.  I am thankful for my grandma who said, when I was four years old, "Those children ought to be baptized!!!" and for the Methodist minister who said, "Now they must be taught to pray."  I am thankful for my father, who drove me to the library and to ballet classes, and for my mother, who taught me how to make doll clothes and how to iron my three brothers' school shirts.  I am thankful for Hobart and William Smith, where I studied chemistry and learned to be an Episcopalian, and for the Trees Community of St. John the Divine in NYC, who welcomed me into their prayer life and their music and their travels around the country.  I am thankful for the Sisters of St. Mary in Tennessee, who sent me to seminary.  I am thankful for Christ Church, where I have spent many high-quality hours in worship and fellowship and study for 30-plus years, and that I survived all the hours I have spent in the church nursery.  I am thankful for my three children, who taught me to use a computer so I could research our family history.   I am thankful for music, which my good husband Jack and I enjoy so much.  I am thankful for mountains and trees and rivers and for eyes to see them.  I am thankful for  my Heavenly Father, Who has been my rock and my shield and my light through many transitions.  And, yes, I am thankful for chocolate.

Doris Bailey-Gordon

I am a long time member of Christ Church (over 30 years). I have been proud to serve as a member of the vestry, sub-deacon, usher, coffee hour host, intercessor, and a member of the search committee for our priest 16 years ago. I am a mother, and a retired elementary school teacher of 25 years with Rochester City School District. I am collaborative and have an ability to work with people of different backgrounds toward common good. I am looking forward to using my skills and talents during the search for our next priest.