Personal and Family Info.

I was born on July 5, 1953, in Los Angeles, California.

My parents were Richard and Mary Robison. My dad died in 1995; my mom, in 2020. I have a younger sister, Anne Yaeger, who with her husband Jim lives in Southern California near their children and grandchildren.

My wife Susy and I were married at the Berkeley Covenant Church on May 23, 1980. We have two adult children, Daniel (b. 1982) and Linnea (b. 1985). In the spring of 2019 Susy retired after a career in non-profit administration. In retirement she has followed a new vocational direction as a writer.  We recently celebrated the publication (May, 2024) of her first novel, Halley and the Mystery of the Lost Girls. Daniel lives in the North Hills area of Pittsburgh and works in the automobile business. Linnea lives not far from us in the city and is a veterinarian practicing at the Banfield Small Animal Hospital in the East Liberty neighborhood.

Academics

I'm a graduate of Glendale High School, the University of California (A.B. English Literature; M.A. English Literature and Medieval Studies); San Francisco State University (Secondary Education Teaching Credential); the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (M.Div.); and the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (D. Min.). In June, 2018, I completed the three-phase Interim Ministry Training Program of the Interim Ministry Network.

Early Employment

After graduate school and before seminary I worked for two years as an agent for A.J. Fritz & Co., a Customs House Broker and Freight Forwarder in San Francisco. For another two years I taught English Literature, World Civilizations, and U.S. History and Government at East Nicolaus High School, East Nicolaus (Sutter County), California.

Christian Life and Ministry

I grew up in a Christian home. During my childhood my family attended a number of Protestant Churches--but mainly Norwegian Lutheran, influenced by my mom's family heritage.

My adult Christian life began with a Christ-centered conversion and renewal during my Junior year at Cal (so in the fall of 1973) while in the circle of the Berkeley Canterbury Club and St. Mark's Episcopal Church. Two clergymen--Peter Haynes, the Canterbury Chaplain, and George F. Tittmann, Rector of St. Mark's-- were especially important pastoral and mentoring influences for me as I grew in faith and fell very much in love with the great Anglican traditions of Prayer Book worship, sacred music, Biblical teaching, and personal piety. Over the next decade my Christian faith and my life in the Church continued to mature. In 1982, with the encouragement of my rector and my bishop, I began the formal processes of discernment and preparation leading toward ordained ministry.

I was ordained as deacon (June, 1986) and priest (January, 1987) in the Diocese of Northern California of the Episcopal Church. In my early years of ministry I served in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania in two "town and gown" parishes as Curate of St. Andrew's Church, State College, and as Rector of St. Paul's Church, Bloomsburg.

In the summer of 1994 I came to the Diocese of Pittsburgh as Rector of St. Andrew's Church in the East End, Highland Park neighborhood of the city--which at that time was one of the last old-fashioned Morning Prayer "Preaching Emporium" parishes in the region.

Over the years while serving in parish ministry I also held occasional adjunct teaching and Field Education Supervisor positions at Trinity School for Ministry (now Trinity Anglican Seminary) in Ambridge and at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. From time to time as well I have written essays, book reviews, and poetry for various church-related publications.

In Pittsburgh I've been active in the diocese and the denomination. I served two four-year terms on the Standing Committee--and had various tours of duty along the way as well on the Diocesan Council, the Committee on Constitution and Canons, the Ecclesiastical Array and Disciplinary Board, the Compensation Committee of Diocesan Council . . . and on numerous other committees and task groups. I was elected twice as a clerical Deputy and twice as a clerical Deputy-Alternate to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. I was also for many years in leadership in our Pittsburgh diocesan Clergy Association--and I served the Clergy Association "movement" at the church-wide level as a board member and then for two years as President of the National Network of Episcopal Clergy Associations (NNECA). 

​I was also active for many years in ecumenical, community, and service organizations,  including the United Campus Ministry of Pittsburgh, the East End Cooperative Ministry, the Highland Park Community Club,  the Union Project, and the Pittsburgh East Rotary Club.
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On January 1, 2020, after almost thirty-five years in full-time parish ministry and more than a quarter-century at St. Andrew's, I entered Retired status in the Church Pension Fund.

These days for me are now all about ministry in retirement. At the beginning of 2020 I began to share Sunday clergy supply duties at All Saints Church in the North Side, Brighton Heights neighborhood. A few months later Bishop McConnell asked me to serve that congregation in a settled capacity as part-time Vicar, or Minister in Charge. At the beginning of 2021 he also invited me to participate in a Church Pension Fund program as Chaplain to Retired Clergy and their Wives and Husbands, Widows and Widowers.

In terms of continuing church-related associations, I am a Confrater of the Benedictine community of St. Gregory's Abbey, in Three Rivers, Michigan, and a Priest Associate of the Community of the Transfiguration, a women's religious order in Glendale, Ohio. I'm also a member of the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion, United States of America (EFAC-USA).

For folks who are familiar with the "inside baseball" vocabularies, codes, and markers of churchmanship: I perch on the more conservative, Five Solas​ Protestant and Reformed low-church branch of the Anglican tradition --especially as that tradition is framed and anchored theologically by the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion and the 1552 Book of Common Prayer.  

I think I have lived out these four decades of my ministerial career as something of an old-fashioned parson -- a pastor who loves the Lord Jesus and His people and who really enjoys all the daily routines of parish life. I try to keep things simple. It has been--and continues to be--such a great privilege, in preaching and teaching and spiritual conversation, to commend the Word of God in the Church and for the world. As one of my spiritual guides, the 19th century Church of England Bishop J.C. Ryle, said of Holy Scripture: "by reading that Book we may learn what to believe, what to be, and what to do; how to live with comfort, and how to die in peace."

Concluding Personal Notes

I'm a student of history--ancient and modern--and an avid reader of biographies, poetry, theology, philosophy, social criticism, and contemporary fiction. I also think, read, and talk a lot about current issues affecting church and society. I spend probably too much time on social media and Netflix. I attend lectures and continuing education events at nearby seminaries--and I listen online to a number of topical podcasts.

​I was for many years a long-distance runner, completing numerous races--including 8 circuits with the Pittsburgh Marathon from the mid-1990's through the early 2000's. Lower back issues have kept me off the road in recent years, alas. But I do still manage some lower-impact cardio, with daily sessions on my elliptical and a brisk midday 5-kilometer walk. Susy and I spend much of the summer every year in Scituate, Massachusetts--the lovely small town on the South Shore where her family has lived for more than three centuries. We walk, read, swim, and enjoy a glass of wine in the evening at a table overlooking the harbor. We have been subscribers for many years to the Mellon Grand Classics series of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. And I cheer (with sometimes astonishing, all-too-often unrewarded enthusiasm) for the University of California football and basketball teams . . . for my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates, and of course as well for our Steelers, and Penguins.

​And I should say: in my spare time I also very much enjoy puttering around the house and yard--these days so long as those domestic tasks don't involve too much heavy lifting . . . .

​Contact me by e-mail: [email protected]