Discovering her voice for a timeless message

St. David’s rector to deliver first Easter sermon there Sunday.

By: Kerri Williams
   It’s just two days away but the Rev. Karin Mitchell isn’t sure exactly what she’ll be saying to her congregation at St. David’s Episcopal Church when she preaches her first Easter sermon there Sunday.
   "I have a hard time writing an Easter sermon before Good Friday," said the Rev. Mitchell, a longtime Hightstown resident. "If you get too far ahead, you don’t have that depth of feeling and that loss."
   She admits that she might get a little nervous as Holy Week progresses, but she’s also feeling grateful for her first few months as rector at St. David’s in Cranbury, where people have been very accepting of her, she said.
   She had big shoes to fill, as she is the first person to hold the position since the church’s founder, the Rev. Laurence Fish, retired in 2003. Under his direction, the church grew from a small mission that met in The Peddie School chapel in Hightstown to the South Main Street church of about 150 families.
   Up until four years ago, the Rev. Mitchell was one of St. David’s parishioners, before becoming ordained at Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in Beach Haven in 2002. She later served for three years as vicar of St. Francis’ Episcopal Church in Dunellen, until her call to St. David’s this past November.
   "It was really wonderful making the jump from parishioner to leader," she said. "People have been very gracious and accepting."
   One of the ways she’s been reintroducing herself to people is by making home visits to all church members.
   "I started with the letter A and am going through the list," she said. "I’m getting to know them in a different way."
   Several of those parishioners said the Rev. Mitchell was a "natural choice" to take over as priest.
   "It just feels natural. It just feels right," said Amy Doutt of East Windsor, who has been attending the church for the past 12 years. "She has come home to her church and her church family."
   Kathy Herzog, head of the Altar Guild at the church, added that the Rev. Mitchell has brought with her a "great excitement."
   "Change is scary but this is a well-needed shot in the arm," she said. "It’s been wonderful to see us grow and feel us grow since she came."
   Attendance has been up at almost all services since the Rev. Mitchell arrived, including the 9:15 a.m. healing service on Wednesdays and the early service on Sundays, according to Ms. Herzog. She credits much of that growth to Rev. Mitchell’s caring attitude.
   "She brings a personal nature to her sermons, to everything," she said.
   But not everyone was quite so sure the Rev. Mitchell was what St. David’s needed. There were some holdouts among the congregation who expressed reservations about having a woman priest, she acknowledged. Most of them decided to stay and give her a chance, she quickly added.
   If anything, the Rev. Mitchell thinks being a woman has helped her to be a better priest.
   "Women bring a different feeling," she said. "In a lot of ways, my life as a mother prepared me for this job."
   The Rev. Mitchell and her husband, David, who live on Orchard Avenue, have three children: Scott and Sarah, both now attending college, and Sam, a junior at Hightstown High School.
   Before becoming a priest, she was involved in borough politics, serving on the Planning Board and Environmental Commission in the early 1990s and president of the East Windsor League of Women Voters from 1988-1992.
   She is most proud of her work with the organization Friends of Dawes Park, which helped to revitalize the borough park and obtain a grant for landscaping. She is also the current president of the Rocky Brook Garden Club.
   That love of gardening and nature has helped her grow spiritually through the years.
   "I do my best praying out in the garden," she said.
   In fact, if it’s a nice day Saturday, she’ll probably be outside finalizing her Easter sermon surrounded by her favorite spring wildflowers. She hopes that by next Easter more of those spring flowers will be popping up in front of St. David’s and that still more people will have discovered the church.
   "We want to reach out to the community and welcome all," she said. "Jesus never turned anyone away."
St. David’s has a Good Friday service at 7:30 p.m. and a Saturday Easter Vigil at 6 p.m. On Sunday, Easter services are at 8 and 9:45 a.m.