Meet our Clergy

2024 – present
Jill Morrison, Priest-in-Charge

The Rev. Jill Morrison is from New Orleans, LA and Katy, TX. Growing up in a family of church planters, Rev. Jill first experienced God in both the theatre and the Episcopal Church. With an aim to articulate God’s movement in stories on stage as well as in our lives, Rev. Jill earned a B.F.A. in Theatre with a Minor in Religion from Texas Christian University and an M.A. in Art and Religion at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. Rev. Jill later moved to Connecticut to complete an M.Div. at Yale Divinity School and a Dip. of Anglican Theology at Berkeley Divinity School. Upon graduation in 2020, Rev. Jill quickly joined the faculty at St. Thomas’s Day School as School Chaplain and continues to serve families and staff throughout the school year. Rev. Jill considers her ministry as an intergenerational call to articulate and celebrate our own stories within the context of God’s abundant love for all of creation. Rev. Jill lives in Hamden Connecticut with her husband, two daughters, and their pet birds.

2003 – 2010 and 2016 – present
Armando Gonzalez, Missional Priest

The Rev. Armando Gonzalez is originally from El Salvador. He grew up in the Roman Catholic tradition. As an adolescent, he became a member of the Assembly of God. He finished two years at the University of El Salvador. He moved to Costa Rica to attended a four-year academic program in Theology at the Latin American Biblical Seminary, in Costa Rica. During that process he became a lay preacher at St. Philips and St. James, Episcopal Mission in San Jose Costa Rica, and continued his studies in Sociology, History, and Comparative Religions at the Universidad de Costa Rica, Universidad de Heredia, Costa Rica.

Fr. Armando was ordained as Deacon on May 2, 1976. In 1978 he married Mary Gonzalez, and is now a retired Episcopal priest. They have one child: Antonio. Armando worked for the Dept. of Public Health and also as a Assistant Priest for Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in San Jose Costa Rica.

He immigrated to the USA in 1982. He studied ESL in Austin, University of Texas and served as missioner at Mark’s Episcopal Church. In 1985 he moved to Newton, MA to attend the Andover-Newton Theological School where he obtained a M. Div. He has served as Hispano-Latino Missioner Priest at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Jamaica Plain, Boston, MA., St. James Episcopal Church, New London, St. Mark’s New Britain, and St. John’s Waterbury, CT.

Past Clergy (1737-2022)

2016 – 2022
Michael Carroll, Priest-in-Charge

2012 – 2016
Amy D. Welin, Interim Rector

2011 – 2012
Rev. Canon Robert Miner, Interim Rector

2010 – 2011
Norman MacLeod, Interim Rector

1989 – 2010
Dr. James G. Bradley, Rector

(From St. John’s website archives, 2006): Jim Bradley became the 19th Rector of St. John’s on June 15, 1989. Three weeks later a violent storm caused over $1 million in damage to St. John’s! Fr. Bradley’s term as Rector began with rebuilding and repairing. While Bradley has been Rector St. John’s has experienced a steady growth in membership and financial support. St. John’s Vision Statement, written by the Vestry in 1992, has been the touchstone and guide for St. John’s ministry in the years since. During these years, St. John’s has become even more open and inclusive to the community.

According to Fr. Bradley, “St. John’s has a remarkable opportunity to be a model of the Future Church. People long for a warm and engaging community of faith where they find and be found by God. St. John’s openness to the transforming power of the Spirit can lead to new paradigms for community and ministry as we move to the next millenium. If we are prayerful and committed, Christ will show us the way.”

1988 – 1989
Jeffrey Dugan, Interim Rector

1979 – 1987
James G. Wilson, Rector

1978 – 1979
Peter Holroyd, Priest-in-Charge

1970 – 1978
Michael S. Kendall, Rector

1960 – 1970
DeWolf Perry, Rector

1958 – 1960
David O. Cowles, Priest-in-Charge

1951 – 1958
John R. Yungblut, Rector

1951
Joseph Koci, Jr., Priest-in-Charge

1948 – 1951
Robert M. Hatch, Rector
For seven years, Hatch served as Suffragan Bishop of Connecticut. He was elected on January 30, 1951, at a special diocesan convention which took place in Hartford, Connecticut. He was consecrated by the Presiding Bishop Henry Knox Sherrill on April 17, 1951, in St John’s Church in Waterbury, Connecticut. In 1957 he was elected Bishop of Western Massachusetts where he remained until 1970. After retirement he served as an Interim in Berlin, New Hampshire.

1941 – 1948
Francis O. Ayres, Rector

1940
Samuel A. Budde, Priest-in-Charge

1901 – 1940
Dr. John N. Lewis, Jr., Rector
Biography from the Waterbury Hall of Fame

1884 – 1901
Edmund Rowland, D.D., Rector

(From St. John’s History Book): Under Dr. Rowland, It was decided to Introduce an entire male choir, the soprano and alto being carried by boys’voices and all the choir to be uniformly dressed In cassocks and cottas. The changes were reported to the Vestry on January 18, 1893.

1880 – 1883
Rob Roy M. (McNulty) Converse, D.D., Rector

1877 – 1880
Joel Foote Bingham, D.D., Rector

1837 – 1877
Jacob L. Clark, D.D., Rector

(From St. John’s History Book): Jacob L Clark, D.D. became rector of St. John’s in 1837. Since Dr. Clark’s day the Sunday School became a prominent part of the Church’s work. Dr. Clark arranged for the Anniversary of the Church School to be held at the same time as the Archdeaconry meeting. The whole afternoon was given upto It. The children assembled In the church and marched, with the county clergy attheir head to a public hall where hymns were sung, speeches made, gifts and food were distributed to the children. The names of those who had not missed any Sunday School during the years were read.

1833 – 1836
Allen C. Morgan, Rector

1830 – 1832
William Barlow, Rector

1814 – 1830
Alpheus Greer, Rector

1807 – 1814
Virgil Horace Barber, Rector

1797 – 1806
Tillotson Bronson, D.D., Rector

1796 – 1797
William Green, Interim Rector

1795
Alexander V. Griswold, D.D., Interim Rector

1791 – 1793
Seth Hart, Rector

1790 – 1791
David Foote, Rector

1790
Chauncey Prindle, Interim Rector

1789 – 1790
Solomon Blakeslee, Rector

1759 – 1788
James Scovil, Rector (First Resident Rector)

1749 – 1759
Richard Mansfield, D.D., Missionary

1744 – 1746
James Lyons, Missionary

1739 – 1743
Theophilus Morris, Missionary

1737 – 1739
Jonathan Arnold, Missionary