The church is not a building; the church is not a steeple;
the church is not a resting place; the church is a people.
Clergy
The Reverend Wendy Mencel, BA (Hons), M.Div joined St. John the Divine as Rector in July 2006. Previously she was Director of Family Ministry at St. James Westminster Anglican Church in London where her work was dedicated to children, youth, and their families. She encourages a Christianity that is giving in Christ’s love and believes passionately that we should respond to that love with joy.
For many years Wendy worked in the pharmaceutical industry in Toronto, Vancouver, and London before accepting the call to serve Christ in His Church and was ordained in 2002. She is delighted to be a part of the parish family at St. John’s and is thrilled to be working with such dedicated and talented people. When Wendy is not at St. John’s you can find her with her husband John, her three children and two step-children, her dog Piper and her cat Willow. Wendy loves sailing the North Channel in the summer, hanging out on the beach with her children, and talking about anything with anyone who will listen!
Other servant leaders for whom the church prays includes:
- The Right Reverend Robert F. Bennett who has been the 12th Diocesan Bishop of Huron since 2008,
- The Most Reverend Colin Robert Johnson (Archbishop of Toronto) who has been the 18th Metropolitan Bishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario since 2009,
- The Most Reverend Frederick James Hiltz (Diocesan Bishop of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island) who has been 13th Primate Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Canada since 2007.
Music Ministry
Sean Kim, B.Mus (Hons), M.Mus keeps himself busy as the music director and organist for St. John’s, an examiner for Conservatory Canada, an adjudicator for Kiwanis and other music festivals, an instructor of music theory and orchestration at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Windsor, and the conductor for the Blyth Festival Orchestra. He frequently performs with the Orchestra London as a keyboardist.
Born in Korea, Sean attended the University of Western Ontario to complete a Bachelors (2001) and Masters (2003) degree in composition. While at Western, Sean studied piano, harpsichord, composition, and instrumental conducting. Currently, he is working on a PhD in Systematic Musicology specializing in music composition linking seismology and transformational theory. His compositions and arrangements are available on his website, creatonality.ca, and have been performed by various ensembles including the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Esprit Orchestra, Blyth Festival Orchestra, Korean-Canadian Symphony Orchestra, Brassroots, London Singers, SoundStreams, and Ensemble Transmission.
Ryan Marttala, B.A (Hons), MLIS joined St. John’s in April 2010 as our composer in residence, but also contributes as the children’s choir director and assistant organist. At the University of Western Ontario, Ryan completed his Bachelors (2005) with a focus on music composition, and a Masters (2008) in library and information science. His interests include composing music through pantonal expansion, renewing the relevance and creativity of music notation within a digital age by reinventing the ontology and visualization of the auditory arts, helping non-profit organizations with information management and web design, and exploring the powers of art and story to create insight.
He is a multi-instrumentalist with a diverse performance background, who happily participates in all forms of musical activity as a way to continually rediscover creativity, fellowship, and wonder. As such, he thoroughly enjoys and encourages amateur music making as a private music teacher, while making his original scores available on his music site, Muse Excite.