A New Call for Ryan Wright ‘06

The Rev. Ryan A. Wright, Class of 2006, has been called as the 5th Rector at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Bonita Springs, Florida.  Wright will celebrate Holy Eucharist and preach for the first time at St. Mary’s the weekend of July 3 and 4.

Wright, 44, will be the youngest rector in the parish’s history.  He is a native of Naples who has lived in Southwest Florida most of his life, most recently serving Church of the Epiphany in Cape Coral and St. John’s Episcopal Church on Pine Island. He is credited with growing those two diverse churches to their present state of health from previously precarious conditions.

A graduate of Stetson University in Deland, FL, before General, Wright came to Christ as a young adult and uses his experience as an “unchurched” youth “to break through people’s preconceived notions of what it means to be part of the church.  Paramount in encountering the unchurched and churched alike is to speak truth with an absence of judgment,” he says. His pastoral experience ranges from programs for the bereaved and terminally ill to years in college ministry; he hopes to bring all that work to bear at St. Mary’s.

“I look forward to working with St. Mary’s to grow the parish in every way—spiritually, in pastoral care, in outreach to the larger community and in numbers,” he said.

St. Mary’s Senior Warden Robert Foltz described Father Wright as “a real people person, full of energy.  He will be a great asset to the parish and to the community.”