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PASTOR

THE REV. DR. BILL POE

Our Pastor and Head of Staff, Dr. William C. Poe, has been with St. Philip since Easter of 1999. He and his wife, Betty Anne, are both native Houstonians, and have served Presbyterian churches in Texas and Arkansas for more than 30 years. Bill is a graduate of the University of Houston, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and McCormick Theological Seminary. He has also done post-graduate study at Rice University. Betty Anne and Bill are the parents of Sarah and Christopher. Sarah and her husband Michael live in Austin, and are the parents of Ellie. Christopher is married to Kimberly, and they are the parents of Ethan and Abby.

CO-ASSOCIATE PASTORS

SHAWN COONS AND CARRIE SMITH-COONS
with Benjamin

The Coons began their ministry with St. Philip on April 1, 2006. Their Pastorate has primary emphasis on the areas of Youth and Young Adult Ministry and Adult Education. They share general pastoral responsibilities with Bill Poe, our Pastor.

The Coons previously served two churches in Michigan and previously lived in Richmond, Virginia, where they studied at Union Theological Seminary and the Presbyterian School of Christian Education. Both have Masters Degrees in Divinity.

Shawn grew up in Iowa and attended the University of Iowa. He was a volunteer youth leader and has been a camp counselor, a hospital chaplain intern, and a summer minister at Zion National Park.

Carrie grew up mainly in the Midwest as the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. She majored in fine arts in college and has been an enthusiastic participant in church and church camps throughout her life. Her call to ministry came after college. Since then she has worked at Montreat Conference Center as part of the summer ministry team to the college staff, as a hospital chaplain intern, and in a church in Potomac, Maryland.

KEITH WEBER
Director of Music

Keith Weber, choral and orchestral conductor, vocal coach, choral clinician, organist, pianist, harpsichordist, and collaborator is widely known for his musical versatility and excellence.

As producer, conductor and principal performer of the Grace Note Music Series in Tyler, TX, he managed, for 15 years, a September through May festival of chamber, choral/orchestral, solo vocal and keyboard music; including a string of successful commissions, among them Bruce Neswick’s Paschal Mysteries, Daniel Burton’s Lux Sancta and Craig Phillips’ Dies Gratiae, as well as much of the standard Choral/Orchestral repertory, including all of Benjamin Britten’s oratorios and canticles as well as the opera Noye’s Fludde. Keith produced the premiere performances of Conrad Susa’s church opera, The Wise Women, for the AGO National Convention in 1994. As liturgical musician, he was on the staff of Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church in Atlanta, GA from 2002 to 2004, and served also as Liturgist and Music Consultant to Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School. A native of western Pennsylvania, he holds a B.M., cum laude, in Organ Performance from Southern Methodist University, an M.M. also from SMU and an M.S.M. from Perkins School of Theology. From August of 1988 until the Fall of 2002, Keith was Director of Music at Christ Church, Tyler, TX, overseeing a fully-developed program including the renowned Grace Note Music Series. He served as Chair of the Music Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, through which he directed the Leadership Program for Musicians, is Past Dean of the East Texas Chapter, American Guild of Organists, and has served on the Board of Directors of the Tyler Civic Chorale. Keith was the founding Associate Musical Director of the Lyric Opera of Dallas, and was recently a coach with the 2005 Summer Festival, Opera In The Ozarks. As a recital collaborator and accompanist, Keith has worked with dozens of singers and instrumentalists and maintains ongoing relationships with singers such as Vern Sutton (with whom he appeared on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” in May of 1999 - celebrating the release of a CD on the Ten Thousand Lakes [Schubert Club of Minnesota] label) and Mezzo-soprano Natalie Arduino. During the 1997‑98 academic year, he was appointed Visiting Professor of Collaborative Musicianship at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, working with internationally‑known collaborator Margo Garrett. His disc of Fanny Mendelssohn Lieder, with soprano Julianne Baird, was released by Newport Classics in January of 1999. He played the Texas and Midwest premieres of Ned Rorem’s concert-length song-cycle for four singers and piano, Evidence of Things Not Seen. Three recordings are planned under the GSI label, with Ms. Arduino, Laura CLaycomb and guitarist David Pulkingham. Keith also works regularly with the Marilyn Horne Foundation, presenting and accompanying their artists. As an organist, Keith won the Dora Poteet Barclay Award (outstanding Undergraduate, SMU), the Roy and Sue Johnson Award (Outstanding Senior, SMU), the 1982 B’nai B’rith Music Scholarship, the Ninth Annual Organ Competition of the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation, the 1991 Region VII National Young Artists = Playing Competition of the American Guild of Organists, was named finalist of the 1992 Spivey International Organ Competition and is widely known for his engaging organ recital programming. He served as Interim Organist at The Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, TX. As a pianist, Keith made his formal orchestral debut in 1997 with The East Texas Symphony Orchestra, Kate Tamarkin, conducting, and as keyboardist‑of‑all‑kinds has been a frequent guest artist with the Ars Lyrica Houston, Houston’s Mercury Baroque, the Tyler Civic Chorale, The (former) Texas Baroque Ensemble, The Dallas Bach Society, The Orpheus Chamber Singers, The University of Texas/Tyler Chamber Orchestra, The New Texas Festival, The Victoria Bach Festival and the International Festival‑Institute at Round Top, TX. Keith was named keyboardist of the East Texas Symphony Orchestra for the 2002-2003 season.

Keith is Artistic Director of Grace Song, Inc., a wide-ranging non-profit production company.

DR. MATTHEW DIRST
Organist

Matthew Dirst is Associate Professor of Music at the Moores School of Music, University of Houston, where he teaches courses in music history and performance practice and directs the school's Collegium Musicum. He is the first American musician to win major international prizes in both organ and harpsichord, including first prize at the American Guild of Organists National Young Artist Competition (1990) and second prize at the inaugural Warsaw International Harpsichord Competition (1993). Among other degrees, he holds the PhD in musicology from Stanford University, where he also taught harpsichord before moving to Houston. A Fulbright scholar to France, he received the coveted prix de virtuosité in both organ and harpsichord with teachers Marie-Claire Alain and Huguette Dreyfus and did further harpsichord study with Alan Curtis at UC Berkeley.

Upon his arrival at the University of Houston in 1996, Matthew Dirst founded Ars Lyrica Houston, www.arslyricahouston.org, a group that specializes in the Baroque chamber repertoire and dramatic works from this era (see Links to Other Organizations). Their performances of early operas especially, presented in collaboration with the Moores School of Music Collegium Musicum and the Moores Opera Center, have attracted considerable attention in the local press. Recent productions include Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, John Blow's Venus and Adonis, Jacopo Peri's Euridice, Handel's Acis and Galatea, and Alessandro Scarlatti's Il Primo Omicidio. Their dramatization of Handel's first oratorio, Il Trionfo del Tempo e della Verità, in spring 2002 was the American première of this neglected work.

As a soloist, Dirst has concertized widely throughout North America and Europe. During the last few years, he has performed solo recitals for the Berkeley Early Music Festival, the Kalamazoo Bach Festival, Arizona State University, Harvard University, Northwestern University, Valparaiso University, and at national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Music Teachers National Association, and the American Institute of Organbuilders. Recent concert appearances have included concerti with the Texas Festival Orchestra at Round Top, the Houston Symphony, the Texas Baroque Ensemble, the El Paso Symphony, the Marin Symphony, and the Calgary Philharmonic.

Equally active as a scholar, Matthew Dirst's publications on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and its reception appear in Early Music, Notes, and Music and Letters. He is the author of the forthcoming Bach as Idea: Strategies in the Reception of the Keyboard Works,  1750 - 1850 (Cambridge University Press).

PARISH ASSOCIATE AND PROGRAM STAFF

THE REV. DR. JACK BOELENS Volunteer Parish Associate Jack Boelens brings over forty years of pastoral experience to St. Philip. He has served churches (ranging in size from 50 to 2600) in the Midwest, the Washington DC area, New York, and Texas churches in El Paso, Houston, and Angleton. He served as the General Presbyter (the highest administrative position) of the Presbytery of New Covenant, from which he retired in 1995. He has been an active preacher, speaker, and teacher for his whole career. Here at St. Philip, he focuses on pastoral duties, especially in teaching and pastoral ministries. He has earned degrees from Calvin College and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Pikeville College, Pikeville, Kentucky. He is married to Joan, and has three sons and five grandchildren.

JUDY GUNN Director of Children's Ministries Judy came to St. Philip in January of 2002 with a wealth of experience with children. She spent over twenty-five years as a teacher in the Goose Creek Independent School District, and has also worked in educational ministries in churches in Baytown. She oversees all children's ministries, and also acitve in leadership with our Wednesday Night Children's Choir School. She has developed new minsitry programs, strengthened our existing ones, and is also active with programs outside of children's offerings such as our monthly luncheons at the retirement home next to St. Philip. She is working towards her certification as a Christian Educator within the Presbyterian Church (USA). She has two daughters.

OFFICE AND CUSTODIAL STAFF


Karen St. Laurent
Office Manager

Wilbert Parada: Head Custodian
Scotty Paetzel: Director: Child's Day In
Joyce Randolph, Wedding Coordinator

THE SESSION

The Session is an elected group of 25 women and men. The Session is charged with spiritual oversight of the total life of the congregation. The membership of the Session consists of the Pastor and duly elected, ordained, and installed Elders in active service. The Pastor serves the Session as Moderator.

In their service on the Session and in Committees, members of the Session play a dual role:

As members of the Session, they are responsible for the spiritual oversight of the congregation, and of all the programs and ministries of the church. In the fulfillment of this role, they must see the church from a "wholistic" perspective; that is, they must be concerned with whether the church's programs and ministries are faithful and effective expressions of the church's mission as a congregation of Christ's people. The Session's responsibilities include all policy-making matters, uses of our facilities, reception of members, assignments of benevolence gifts, direction of the services of worship and the sacraments, and the day-to-day work of the church, i.e. budget, personnel, and building and grounds.

As members of Commissions, they are responsible for working with others in planning, implementing, and evaluating particular programs and ministries of the church; and for communicating to the Session all the information necessary for the Session to exercise its role of spiritual oversight.

Here are the members of the Session :

COMMISSIONS