St. Mary's

The Rev. C. J. Arnold The Rev'd Christopher J. Arnold began his pastoral duties at St. Mary's on Sunday, August 1, 2010. Father Chris moved to Middlesboro in July with his wife, Celeste Williams, from California's Bay Area where he was attending seminary.

Chris has his BA in European History from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and in 2008 earned his Master of Divinity degree from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, which is the Episcopal Church's seminary on the West Coast. Chris has also just completed an MA in Liturgical Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, one of the largest and most diverse institutes for the study of religion in the country. The topic of his Master's thesis was the history of footwashing as a ritual element in Christian liturgy.

Chris was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the northeast of England, and was baptized at St. Michael and All Angels, Amersham, in the Oxford diocese of the Church of England. He grew up in the suburbs south of Boston, Massachusetts. After university, Chris lived in Cambridge, England, and Seattle while working in the software industry. While living in Seattle, Chris became a member of St. Mark's Cathedral, the cathedral for the Diocese of Olympia. It was there that he also met his wife, Celeste Williams, and they were married shortly before Chris began at seminary. Celeste was born into an Army family, and has lived in and traveled to many different states and countries throughout her life. Until moving to Kentucky, she has worked as a high school mathematics teacher, including two years as the head of the math department at a Roman Catholic school in Richmond, California.

Father Chris was ordained a Deacon at Trinity Cathedral in Sacramento, California, by the Right Reverend Barry L. Beisner, Bishop of Northern California. The ordination was on June 12, 2010, the feast of Blessed Enmegahbowh, the first Native American to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church. He was ordained to the priesthood on December 20, 2010, at Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington by the Right Reverend Stacy F. Sauls on behalf of Bishop Beisner.

Chris has studied at Canterbury Cathedral in England, and at St. George's College in Jerusalem. He is a member of the Society of Catholic Priests, the Society of Mary, and the Guild of All Souls. He is also a Missioner of the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.