The Rev. Brian Baker figures he's presided over 200 weddings in the eight years he's been pastor at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Sun Valley. His office is lined with photos of him with grinning brides and grooms. It makes for a happy office of hope and love.
"I was 36 when I arrived, inexperienced and a young punk." His remark is a little facetious. Baker is youthful, clean-cut and wearing a priest's collar. He's not only not a "punk"; he has just been made the dean of Trinity Cathedral in Sacramento, Calif. His new position means he will be leaving St. Thomas' tight-knit, small-town congregation.
It wasn't always thus. When he arrived in 1998, "a piece of the challenge was following Charlie Berger, who had been St. Thomas' rector for 12 years," Baker said. "He had done a marvelous job of creating a dynamic, strong, friendly, welcoming congregation. Charlie was 60 when he retired, wise and beloved."
The disappointment, though fleeting, was that he was not what people were used to, Baker mused. His youthful "joie de vivre" and his post-service "woo-ha" surprised older members. Baker comes by the military cheer honestly; he and his wife Andrea are both West Point graduates.
As it happened, his first Sunday on the job was the parish's annual meeting; the guest of honor was not the new rector but the architect—John Stewart of Bellingham, Wash. "He presented the concept (for the new church building), the model, the drawings. They approved it and turned to their green, wet-behind-the-ears rector and said, 'Make it so.'"
"The new church cost $3 million for a congregation whose annual contributions were $160,000, which I saw was impossible, except here," he said after a pause.
The Bakers may have stepped into an existing challenge but they were equal to it. Andrea beefed up the youth programs and Brian charmed the congregates, young and old. Before long, the small A-frame church was busting at the seams.
"I felt like building the building was the first thing we had to do," he said. "It consumed a lot of energy."
In 1999, the congregation "went into exile" for nine months at the American Legion Hall in Ketchum, while the sanctuary at St. Thomas was being enlarged.
During Ketchum's Wagon Days Parade in 2000, the congregation marched en masse up Sun Valley Road to the nearly completed church, with Baker leading the way.
"On that day attendance doubled," Baker marveled. "The thing I'm most proud of and the most pleased by is the role St. Thomas has created in the community and the spiritual community. Secular programs are held here and four different religious groups meet here regularly."
Baker's open-door policy for the most part has done as much to attract new members as his lively services.
"For me, the most significant arena of broken-ness is our propensity to demonize the other and to judge others and put them in groups," Baker said. "What I'm most pleased by is that St. Thomas has been an icon of togetherness and openness."
So why would he leave? Since he's been here he's learned hip-hop, became a noted wild man on skis and even acted in a one-man play.
"I'm not a maintenance person. I'm sure there's more development and growth that can take place. Everything I know how to do, I've done, and I know there is a great priest who will come to St. Thomas and move it to its next incarnation."
As for Trinity Cathedral, which is located in downtown Sacramento, it seems they need Baker to do for them what he accomplished here.
"They're in the beginning of a building campaign. At the same time, it's an urban congregation. A lot of people who attend commute—it's not a neighborhood church.
"Part of my job is to hopefully help them into whatever kind of church God is calling them to be. I'm never interested in the church as an institution; I'm interested in Trinity Cathedral as an organism, something that's alive. It doesn't really matter what building we're in.
"My fear is if I stayed here, St. Thomas would stagnate. I'm out of new ideas," he added. "The staff at Trinity is 15. The congregation numbers approximately 500. It's big, organic, racially mixed and explicitly open to gays and lesbians. Right now, I will be the youngest person on the staff."
The more one considers the move the more it seems the ideal situation for Baker. He needs action and a challenge, but he also craves diversity.
"I'm going to miss getting to be the village priest," he admitted. "I'm going to miss being an integral part of a community. When I go to Sacramento I'll be anonymous.
"One of the things I most appreciate here is how well we care for each one another in grief. The whole community comes together. A community is forged in that crucible; it's the quality of community that undergirds it all. We will show up for each other."
Baker is sanguine, however. He knows he'll always be part of the St. Thomas family. Should he need that sense of community he can always return for a respite from urban life and a turn on Baldy.
The doors are always open.
The Rev. Brian Baker
