Rev. Suzanne Wade likes to say she was raised in the Congregational Church, gave her life to Jesus in the American Baptist Church, and found her spiritual home in the Episcopal Church. Born in Saugus, Mass., she was baptized at Cliftondale Congregational Church, where her large extended family of grandparents, parents, a sister, aunts, uncles, and cousins made church-going a family affair. Growing up, she also spent many Sunday nights at youth group at her best friend’s American Baptist Church, where she answered an altar call at age 13.
Despite these deeply religious roots, however, Suzanne’s first calling was not the ministry. Majoring in journalism at Northeastern University, her first vocation was as writer. She worked as a newspaper reporter in Lynn, Mass., and Media, Penn., then as an editor for several jewelry industry magazines, becoming Editor-in-Chief and Associate Publisher for Manufacturing Jewelers & Suppliers of America in Providence, Rhode Island, by the time her son, Eric, was born. After Eric’s birth, Suzanne launched a career as a freelance writer in order to enjoy more flexibility and time with her son and his sister, Rebecca, who followed two years later. The career shift also gave her time to reflect on her sense of calling, and in 2007 she was admitted to the ordination process in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.
After earning a Master of Divinity degree at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, she was ordained a deacon in June 2011, and to the priesthood in January 2012. During her training, she worked as a hospital chaplain at Miriam Hospital in Providence; served two years as deacon-in-training at Trinity Church, Stoughton; and traveled to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to study baptismal ministry as practiced in one of the oldest shared ministry dioceses in the country. Her special focus is on identifying spiritual gifts and empowering baptismal ministries, particularly in small churches. Suzanne was appointed deacon- and then priest-in-charge of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Westford after ordination, and was called as the church’s rector in 2014.
In addition to her deep love for parish ministry, she continues to be passionate about the vocation of writing. In 2018, she spent three months on sabbatical exploring the various ways Bible stories are told in modern American popular culture and hopes to write a book on the topic. She blogs whenever she finds time at suzanne-wadingin.blogspot.com.
Suzanne and her husband, Rich, have been married for 30 years and make their home in Mansfield, Mass.
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- Rector