The Rev. Elizabeth “Libby” Berman has been hired as canon for congregations for the Diocese of Massachusetts, a new staff position.
The Rev. Libby Berman
Berman will serve as the senior staff person overseeing development for congregations not in clergy leadership transition, supporting and implementing new and existing programs and ministries for their vitality and viability, as well as for the wellness of the clergy who serve them. She will assume a number of the duties now carried out by Bishop Bud Cederholm, who will retire in early November.
“With her professional background in university and divinity school admissions and financial aid, as well as broad parish experience as a priest-in-charge, interim, priest associate and assistant rector, Libby brings a variety of skills and talents to this new position,” the Rev. Canon Mally Lloyd, Canon to the Ordinary, said in a July 26 e-mail announcement to clergy, wardens and diocesan leadership. “She knows the clergy, lay leadership and congregations of the diocese well, as she has worked in five deaneries and in congregations of differing sizes and demographics. She has the ability to analyze and think clearly with compassion, as evidenced by her work on the Diocesan Council and its Executive Committee and Assessment Coordinating Committee.
“As I said to many of the candidates for this job, we had an embarrassment of riches in the number and quality of applications. I am grateful to all those who so thoughtfully interviewed with us over the past month,” Lloyd said.
Berman is completing a three-and-a-half-year term as priest-in-charge at the Church of the Advent in Medfield. Her official start date will be in October, in advance of Bishop Cederholm’s retirement.
“I am so happy to have the opportunity to serve the congregations of our diocese as canon for congregations,” Berman said by e-mail. “In recent years, I have come to appreciate the important role the diocese can play in supporting congregations as we move into a new time in a changing church. I pledge to do all I can, as I join a very dedicated diocesan staff, to continue that good work that God has begun.”
Prior to being named priest-in-charge of the Medfield parish, Berman served at Emmanuel Church in Wakefield as the interim priest (2006-2008) and at St. Elizabeth’s Church in Sudbury as priest associate, priest-in-charge during the rector’s sabbatical and assistant rector (2000-2006). She also served as the priest-in-charge during the rector’s sabbatical at St. John’s Church in Jamaica Plain in 2004.
She worked at Harvard University for nearly 10 years as an undergraduate admissions and financial aid officer, also serving as senior advisor in the freshman dean’s office. Following that she was director of admissions and financial aid at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge for two years and then the assistant director of admissions and acting chaplain at Harvard Divinity School.
She is a graduate of Harvard College, and holds a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a master of divinity degree from Episcopal Divinity School. She was ordained to the priesthood in 2002.
Berman and her husband, Mark, have two daughters who are 14 and 11.