Welcome to The Reverend Christopher Brooke Craun
Yes, my name is Christopher. And I have aunts named Kevin and Cameron! I certainly am excited about returning to the West Coast although a little apprehensive since I have heard that Oregonians don’t encourage refugees from California. (But I can claim an uncle from Salem, OR who played basketball at the University of Oregon.) I have had an eclectic religious education background – Catholic high school, religious studies classes at University of California at San Diego, a year at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley while serving as a youth minister, a Master’s of Divinity from General Seminary in New York City and a two-year internship at St. Peter’s Lutheran church in New York City with roles in the Spanish Misa and Jazz Vesper services.
I have spent the last five years in the East, the most recent years at St. James’s in West Hartford as the Associate Rector. My passions for preaching and liturgy, Spanish ministry, outreach and justice, pastoral care and youth were supported by the tremendous mentorship I received from the Reverends Bob Hooper (St. James’s), Amandus Derr (St. Peter’s), Molly Darling and Scott Denman (St. John’s) – along with the parishioners at all three of these churches.
My travel itinerary has been mainly shaped by youth mission trips – New Orleans, Alaska, Arizona, and Puerto Rico. I have also enjoyed trips to England and France. My volunteer activities are mostly related to sports – teaching swimming to at-risk high school students, coaching junior high and high school girls' basketball, and assistant coaching at college women’s soccer. But I have also have enjoyed being a counselor at Episcopal Church camps in the Diocese of California and being a camp counselor for Camp Laurel, a camp for children with HIV/AIDS. Most recently my volunteer activities surround working for A Hand Up, delivering furniture to formerly homeless families.
I am excited to join the community at St. Michael & All Angels. I see many wonderful ways in which our paths will converge and I expect that we will go on many great adventures together. Look for my partner Michelle and me testing out all the new parks and forests with our boxer dog, Ollie.