Clergy & Rabbi

Emmanuel Church in the City of Boston has become increasingly like an interfaith family with our resident Classical Reform synagogue, Central Reform Temple of Boston. As a result, our clergy are supplemented by our Rabbi-in-Residence, Rabbi Dr. Michael Shire.  

The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz, Rector

Image of The Rev. Pam Werntz

The Very Rev. Pam Werntz (photo by Ana Hernandez)

Pam is Emmanuel’s 12th rector and first woman rector, and the first openly-queer woman rector of an Episcopal parish in Boston. Throughout her career, Pam has worked diligently for social justice and support of the arts, particularly among and on behalf of people who are most marginalized in our society.  See our diocese’s article celebrating her longtime service of prison ministry (now at 25+ years): The steadiness of showing up.

Pam received her A.B. in English from Franklin and Marshall College. She spent the following 15 years in the private sector, rising to Vice President of Human Resources in a large consulting firm in northern Virginia. In 1996, she migrated north with her family to attend Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. She received her MDiv in 2000, and was awarded Lockhart Scholar for contributions to community life and the Dietrich Prize for best paper on the urban mission of the church.

Pam was ordained as deacon on June 15, 2002, and priest on May 31, 2003, in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. She served as Associate Rector at St. Paul’s Church in Brookline, MA, from July 2002 to January 2008. Emmanuel Church called Pam to serve as Priest-in-Charge in February 2008, and as Rector in January 2010. In September 2022, she was appointed dean of our diocese’s Boston Harbor Deanery.

Pam and her wife Joy Howard have three adult children, a daughter-in-law, a son-in-law, and four grandchildren.

The Rev. Susan Ackley, Priest Associate

headshot of The Rev. S. Ackley

The Rev. Susan Ackley

The Rev. Susan Ackley served as interim priest during our rector’s sabbaticals in 2013 and 2018. Under her pastoral leadership, we began a Friday-afternoon worship service based on 12-step spirituality and Episcopal Church prayers. Each week reflections and healing prayers are offered in Lindsey Chapel or the Parish Hall.

Susan is chaplain at Plymouth House in Plymouth NH and co-chair of the NH Episcopal Recovery Ministry.

The Rev. Dr. John Golenski, Priest Associate

The Rev. Dr. John Golenski

After a full career in health care and health policy in the West Coast, The Rev. Dr. John Golenski recently returned home to New England. Trained as a developmental psychologist, following ordination as a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest in 1980, he began working at Children’s Hospital in Oakland. In 1982, he founded a children’s home care and hospice agency serving Northern California. Following a postdoc in medical ethics in 1985, he served for 14 years as an Ethicist for Kaiser Permanente nationally. In 1995, he “swam to Canterbury” and joined the Episcopal Church. He assisted on Sundays at St. Gregory of Nyssa Church in San Francisco after receiving a license to preside in the Diocese of California in 2003. In 2005 he came full circle and took the position of Executive Director of the first residential end-of-life facility for children, the George Mark Children’s House. He retired to Boston in 2015 and became a member of Emmanuel Church in 2016. To keep busy in retirement, he is founding CEO of a small healthcare informatics start-up.

The Rev. Dr. Martha Tucker, Priest Associate

The Rev. Dr. Martha Tucker

Martha Tucker resides in Plymouth, MA, so that she can be close to her grandchildren (except the one in Wilmington, DE) and attend her beloved Emmanuel Church. An Episcopal priest, Martha studied at EDS in Cambridge, MA, and did her field work at Emmanuel with Pam. In semi-retirement, she returns to the place she feels most at home and at which she feels she can live into her/our call to beautiful liturgy and fervent social justice. Her PhD in Developmental Psychology proved useful in running a nursery school and in founding St. David’s Episcopal Day School in Wayne, PA. She has also practiced litigation law in a former life. Martha is married to David Hargrove, who is also passionate about Emmanuel. She now spends her time caring for grand-babies, walking the beaches with her cavapoo Nellie, reading, and writing.

The Rev. Dr. Cathy H. George, Priest Associate

The Rev. Dr. Cathy H. George

Former Associate Dean and Director of Formation at Yale Divinity School, The Rev. Dr. Cathy H. George, earned her BA degree from Macalester College, an M.Div in 1984 from Harvard Divinity School, and a D.Min from Boston University School of Theology in 2017. She has served as a parish priest in urban, rural, and suburban parishes, and as a prison chaplain.

She began her career as Rector of Emmanuel Church, a summer chapel in Dublin, New
Hampshire. As Senior Associate at Trinity Boston, Cathy designed an education program for the historic parish in Copley Square. Cathy served as Rector at St. Anne’s in Lincoln, MA, for 12 years before moving to serve two at-risk urban churches in Dorchester, MA.

Her published work includes: You Are Already Praying; Stories of God at Work Morehouse Publishing 2013, The Stillness We Seek; Daily Devotions for Advent Forward Movement 2015, Howard Thurman’s Practice of Intimacy in the Development of Community Journal of Pastoral Theology 2016, Minding the Gap: Building Partnerships Across Difference, Anglican Theological Review 2017, Poverty of Spirit and the Spiritual Life of Children, Yale ISM Review 2018, as well as publications of her poetry in The Penwood Review, Spirit Fire Review, Clayjar Review, Solid Food Press and Smoky Quartz Magazine.

Cathy’s leadership is distinguished by her preaching and pastoral ability to make sacred
connections between faith and daily life. She writes poetry and creative non-fiction, drawing inspiration from the teachings of Jesus, the natural world, her yoga practice, and the people in her life.

The Rev. Isaac Everett, CRECHE Executive Director

The Rev. Isaac Everett

Isaac (he/him) is a passionate believer in intentional community; he co-founded one such community with five collaborators in 2011 and has lived there with his partner ever since, and was a part of the founding team that conceived and created CRECHE (the Charles River Episcopal Co-Housing Endeavor). Before joining the CRECHE staff, Isaac served as the Minister of Liturgical Arts at The Crossing, a Boston-based church plant, and had a ten-year career as a session musician in New York City prior to that.

Isaac has professional certificates in nonprofit management and fundraising from Boston University, a Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary, and a dual degree in Mathematics and Music Composition from NYU.

As a musician, author, and liturgist, he has written The Emergent Psalter, a contemporary setting of the psalms, and released Rotation and Transmission, two electronic pop albums inspired by liturgical texts.

Isaac spends his spare time making music, coaching weightlifters, and playing nerdy board games. The Emmanuel House is affiliated with Emmanuel Church and through CRECHE. Learn more about The Emmanuel House and CRECHE. Contact Isaac at isaac@creche.community.

The Rev. Robert Greiner, Deacon

The Rev. Robert Greiner preaching

The Rev. Robert Greiner

The Rev. Robert Charles Greiner joined us shortly after his ordination in June of 2016. He retired from being a full-time receptionist at the offices of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in 2019.

After graduating from Hunter College in 1979, he worked in New York City as project editor mostly in college publishing.  In 2000, he moved to Boston to work in the college division of Houghton Mifflin Company.

In August 2013, he married his longtime partner Bao-xin Zhang at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul with Bishop Gayle Harris presiding. In 2015, they purchased a home in Malden. They enjoy long walks with conversation and silence.

Bob wants to meet everyone in the parish, so please introduce yourself if you haven’t met him yet.  He can be reached at deacon@emmanuelboston.org.

Rabbi Dr. Michael Shire, Rabbi-in-Residence

Rabbi Dr. Michael Shire

On 1 July 2022, Rabbi Dr. Michael Shire became the settled rabbi of Central Reform Temple and Emmanuel’s Rabbi-in-Residence. He also serves as Professor of Jewish Education at Hebrew College, Boston. Having grown up in the UK in the Liberal Jewish Movement, he earned an honors BA in Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College, London; a Master’s in Religious Education from Hebrew Union College, New York; and then a PhD in Jewish Education at HUC and University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Concurrently, he served as Director of Education at Temple Beth Hillel, a large Reform Temple in the San Fernando Valley. When he returned to the UK, he became Director of the newly established Centre for Jewish Education and studied for rabbinic ordination at Leo Baeck College in London.

Rabbi Shire is married to Rabbi Marcia Plumb, Senior Rabbi of Congregation Mishkan Tefila in Brookline. They have two adult children. Temple President Richard A. Daynard said, “The arrival of Rabbi Shire is a dream come true. He brings an extraordinary depth and breadth of knowledge, which he wears lightly, and has great personal warmth and kindness. With Rabbi Shire on board, we can bring new activities and new members to our thriving progressive Newbury Street congregation.”