Emmanuel Episcopal Church In Greenwood Has New Rector

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Rev. Garcia
Rev. Garcia

Rev. Christopher M. Garcia has accepted a call from the vestry of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Greenwood and became the church’s new rector October 1. He will celebrate his first services of Holy Communion at 9 and 11 a.m. on October 6.

Rev. Garcia comes to Emmanuel from Christ Church, Georgetown, in the Diocese of Washington, D.C., where he has served as assistant to the rector for just over three years.

For 25 years, he served in the U.S. Army as an intelligence officer and later as a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. His military career took him to Korea, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Iraq for Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, as well as several U.S. posts.

Assignments at the Pentagon brought the Garcia family to Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Burke, Virginia, which sponsored him for ordination. He earned his undergraduate MBA and law degrees from Cornell University. His seminary education was at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. During seminary, he served at Washington Hospital Center, Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church, Purcellville, and Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church in Arlington.

The Rev. Garcia met his wife, Cheryl, while they were both in law school and they have been married almost 23 years. They have two children, Elizabeth, 19, a sophomore at James Madison University and Thomas, 18, a senior at West Springfield High School.

Rev. Garcia said, “I was attracted to Emmanuel by its beautiful setting: my family and I spent four happy years in Charlottesville (Thomas was born there), and we welcomed the chance to come back to Albemarle County.”

Emmanuel Episcopal Church is at 7599 Rockfish Gap Turnpike.