The Very Reverend Jack Potter
Dean Emeritus, Cathedral Church of Saint Mark, Salt Lake City, Utah

When did you begin to think about a vocation in the Church?
Almus Thorp, a remarkable dean and a kind friend, was instrumental in nurturing my thinking. I have strong feelings about ministry as calling, and I resist what I view to be the ‘packaging process’ of present day ministry. Almus had strong feelings about being‘called’ as opposed to ‘marketing’ oneself. At least some of that rubbed off on me!

What was Bexley like?
The faculty was extraordinary. They were excellent teachers and caring friends. To say more would verge on the maudlin—and neither they nor I wound want to go there!

What is the shape of your own ministry?
I've been Dean of the Cathedral Church of Saint Mark for 11 years. Before that I was rector of Grace Church, Tucson, and had an 18-year stint in the Diocese of Indianapolis where I served as Canon to the Ordinary.

Thanks to a remarkable curacy at Grace Church, Providence, Rhode Island, under the late Robert McGregor, much of the focus of my ministry has centered around issues of human freedom. While in Tucson, for example, my congregation became deeply involved in two major food programs and ultimately in a prenatal clinic for so-called undocumented persons who had come to the U.S. so that unborn children would have United States citizenship. Using the medical skills of several doctors and nurses in the congregations, we ensured that these people were given the only medical care that they had ever received. I was also involved in assisting undocumented refugees who were fleeing persecution, primarily from El Salvador.

When I came to Utah, I continued my interest in Latino ministry, and nine years ago began a Spanish speaking congregation here at the cathedral. We now have a Mexican priest in residence here, and have one of the models for Latino ministry in the American church. I'm very grateful to be a part of its development.

What would you say to someone considering Bexley, if you only had a minute?
It will open doors for further study for you well beyond the precincts of Bexley Hall. I have had an exciting ministry, and I am very grateful to the faculty at Bexley Hall for a sane, sound theological education.

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