Our Rector:
The Rev. Geoffrey Tindall Piper
Born in Burlington, Vermont, Geoffrey Tindall Piper grew up in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts, in Pittsfield and Sheffield. His father was a college English professor. His mother was a public school librarian. Geoffrey was the second of four siblings. 
His earliest Episcopal Church memory: singing in the boys’ choir (with a huge red satin bow tie designed to embarrass the life out of the boys) at St. Stephen’s in Pittsfield.Geoffrey's best memories from high school: playing quarterback on the “Charlie Brown League” football team; traversing Baxter State Park in Maine with a backpack; climbing Mt.Katahdin; working as a summer Scout craft Counselor at Camp Greenough in Yarmouth Port on the Cape; achieving the rank of Eagle Scout.
Geoffrey graduated from Amherst College with a B.A. in English in 1977. Best experiences: musical theatre; singing with the 100-voice Men’s Glee Club; performing the Berlioz Requiem in a Five College chorus of 450 voices at Lincoln Center in New York. At the end of a seven-week Glee Club tour through Central and South America, he landed on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. There he worked as a snorkeling tour guide in the coral reefs, waited on tables in a French café, and finally was hired to teach K-12 general music at Country Day School.
While living in the Caribbean, Geoffrey was drawn to a lively, committed faith in Christ through the loving, winsome, joyful witness of the Moravian minister’s family. Intent on a career in the performing arts, he was awarded a fellowship, and attended Regent University in Virginia. He studied educational children’s television production, and ended up with an M.A. in Communication in 1981.
Geoffrey moved back to Massachusetts and began work as Director of Educational Media at Gordon College in Wenham, MA. He worshiped at Christ Church, Hamilton/Wenham, and met Leslie Thayer singing in the church choir. They married in 1983. In 1985 (with Leslie, two small boys and two old cats) he began his pastoral ministry as Lay Reader-in-Charge of four congregations in remote out-port fishing villages of northern Quebec, near Newfoundland and Labrador. During their five years in the Anglican Church of Canada, he studied theology at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, graduated with honors, and was ordained in 1988. (Daughter Katie arrived that year to celebrate with them!) They served a total of eleven congregations in three different clustered parishes over five years.
In 1990, the Pipers moved to Easthampton, Massachusetts, where Father Geoffrey served two years as priest-in-charge, then as rector for six years. Best experiences: raising three young children in a very sweet, friendly, small town; establishing a choral music program at the church for visiting college choirs; watching Leslie win the fellowship, earn her M.A. (with honors) in Musicology, and teach a course at Smith College.
In 1998, the family moved to West Bloomfield, Michigan. Father Geoffrey served as the Assistant Rector for Youth Ministries for eight years. Best experiences: coaching his children and the parish kids in their Christian faith; developing an adventure camping and canoeing ministry with the teens; Christmas pageants with the young children; watching their three kids do well in exceptional public schools.
Father Geoffrey worked for two more years at a large urban church in Detroit, overseeing the Christian education program and sharing pastoral ministry with the rector, a fellow Amherst graduate. His chief earthly joys are his family, choral music, trout fishing, sailing, cutting firewood, and World War II history.
In May 2008, Father Geoffrey was called as rector of St. Gabriel's Church in Marion, MA. He and his wife, Leslie, look forward to building their ministry and mission together with their new parish.