New rector, Susan Allison-Hatch,

Last summer, with the retirement of longtime rector Stephen N. Brannon, the congregation of Trinity Episcopal Church issued a letter. In the letter, the church addressed the need for a new leader, someone “enthusiastic, vibrant, and energetic.” The letter expressed the church’s hope for a visionary, someone who could help to “revitalize the ministries of the parish.”
The letter was sent around the country. The appeal prompted responses from men and women of all backgrounds and qualifications.
After nearly a year of searching, the church found the Reverend Susan Allison-Hatch.
Currently the associate rector and school chaplain for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Oakland, Rev. Allison-Hatch will take up her new appointment in July, when she becomes head rector of Trinity Church, located on East Spain Street.
The recipient of three masters degrees, including one in education from Stanford and another in divinity from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Allison-Hatch is originally from Minnesota, where she received her first master’s degree in teaching from St. Thomas University in St. Paul.
She moved to California in 1981, shortly after marrying her husband, Tim. They have been married 26 years.
It is clear that Allison-Hatch’s qualifications reside with her own intellectual quest. In a recent interview conducted in Trinity Church’s redwood grove, Allison-Hatch described the peace she finds in addressing life’s uncertainties within the comfortable forum of the church.
“To have a place where we can all share the deep questions of our days,” she said. “That is what drew me to the Episcopal Church, and that is what the Episcopal Church continues to offer.
“We go out into the world, and our challenge is to be faithful, to live our lives faithful to God’s will,” she said. “These days, there are many people who have a spiritual hunger that needs to be fed. The doors of the church are open to anyone.”
She and her husband are excited about the close-knit potential offered by Sonoma and by Trinity.
“Community is maintained through fellowship, and finding community is one of the great challenges of the day,” she said. “But Trinity is a warm and welcoming community with a rich history. I feel honored and grateful to be called by them.”
One of Allison-Hatch’s primary aims at St. Paul’s in Oakland was family ministry. “I just came from a classroom full of children,” she said, in reference to her morning duties in Oakland. “At the beginning of the year we have the kids write down their big questions. Then, over the course of the year we discuss them. One popular one is always, ‘Is there a God?’”
The new pastor welcomes such questions, understanding that it is through honest contemplation that the church succeeds, and in doing so accommodates a growing congregation. Allison-Hatch enjoys addressing these questions, identifying herself as someone who is driven by deep thought. “I think that deep spiritual hunger is fed in worship, shared silence and searching conversations. I look forward to a life of worship and probing conversations in Sonoma.
“I came to this calling rather recently,” said Allison-Hatch, who graduated from Church Divinity School of the Pacific in 2003. Though, it was back in 1981 when she first felt the draw of the priesthood. “My husband took me to All Saint’s Episcopal Church in Pasadena. It was there I was drawn in by the beauty of holiness,” she said of the service. “So, a few years ago, with the support of my husband, I made the decision to go to seminary and to pursue ordination to the priesthood,” she added.
“Now, I look forward to the opportunity to build good relationships with the people of Trinity, to share in the life of Sonoma, and make it our home.”