Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Spring 2012 Issue | Page 6

THE REV. CANON SUSAN GOFF
Canon to the Ordinary
Diocese of Virginia
The Rev. Canon Susan Ellyn Goff is canon to the ordinary of the Diocese of Virginia. She is married to
the Rev. Tom Holliday. Her previous ministries were as rector of St. Christopher’s, Springfield, rector of
Immanuel, Old Church, in Mechanicsville, chaplain of St. Catherine’s School in Richmond and chaplain
of St. Margaret’s School in Tappahannock. In addition, she taught liturgics and trained seminarian
supervisors at Virginia Theological Seminary. She is a graduate of Douglass College, New Brunswick,
N.J., and Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Goff, 58, has been ordained 31 years.

PASTOR-PROPHET

HEROES & HEROINES

BAPTISMAL COVENANT

During my early years as rector of
St. Christopher’s, a disturbing trend
began. More and more frequently, men
and women spent the night sleeping
on the church grounds. I was deeply
troubled that, in one of the wealthiest
counties in the nation, our brothers
and sisters in Christ were in such
terrible distress. As I came to know
their stories, I spoke about them in
sermons and conversations. I invited
the congregation to begin working
together for the sake of our homeless
neighbors. Those sermons and
conversations were acts of pastoral
care for both the homeless and the
congregation. They were also acts of
prophetic visioning for the sake of both
the homeless and the congregation.
The pastoral and the prophetic
converged w