Two Retired Priests,
One New Role:
Welcome Our New Deans at the School for Ministry

Amy and Joe on the Riviere du Diable, Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, 2023.

The Diocese of New Hampshire’s School for Ministry (SFM) is evolving! The Diocese is excited to grow with our newly hired deans: the Rev. Dr. Amy Richter and the Rev. Dr. Joseph Pagano (who much prefer to be called Amy and Joe). The couple will provide academic leadership and local formation of ordained and lay Episcopal ministers at SFM.

The job search for this position began in July 2025, after the SFM received a grant from the Iona Collaborative at Seminary of the Southwest’s “Locally Grown Leaders” program. Along with 21 Episcopal dioceses, the SFM received funding from Lilly Endowment as part of its Ministry in Rural Areas and Small Towns Initiative. This support will further advance SFM’s mission to form local spiritual leaders. The SFM’s founding dean, Rev. Canon Kelly Sundberg Seaman, will transition to a new role in the Diocese. (More on this soon!)

While the evolution of the SFM was very much planned, the dean job share was not. When the search committee received Amy and Joe’s cover letter asking if the Diocese would be open to splitting the position, the committee let the Spirit move them. “That’s just the kind of creative approach we love in the Diocese of New Hampshire,” Tina Pickering, Canon to the Ordinary, responded.

And so, after recently retiring from parish ministry in Maryland (where they are canonically resident), Amy and Joe submitted their CVs as co-applicants to the dean position.

Working together is not new for Amy and Joe, however. They have fifteen years of experience working in tandem—in both parish clergy leadership and academic ministry settings. They served three parishes together, ranging from a small, rural setting (in Western Newfoundland, Canada) to a large, urban setting (in Annapolis, Maryland).

“We’ve gotten positive feedback from people who have seen us work and teach together,” Amy shares. “They’ll say, ‘oh that’s what cooperation and mutual respect can look like.’” It is easy to see their ability, and call, to job share as a blessing when you speak with them. “It can be a gift to see how two people can cooperate in leadership,” Amy adds.

The married couple work very much as a team, even co-authoring books, but they are also aware of their individual talents and complimentary gifts in ministry. “We have always been able to discern between our different gifts,” Joe says. “Amy, for example, was always the rector at the churches where we served, while I did Christian education, outreach, and pastoral care. We worked out those areas easily and faithfully.”

As parish priests, Amy and Joe helped identify and prepare people for ministry as lay leaders and for ordination—a background that equips them for their new role. Part of their intention in early retirement was to engage more fully in ministries of helping to form lay and ordained leaders in the church through teaching and writing.

“We love working together on theological education,” Joe says. “And we have different expertise.” Both hold PhDs in theology—Joe’s is in systematic theology (ethics) and Amy’s in biblical studies/New Testament. They have taught internationally in colleges and theological schools in Makhanda, South Africa and in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and nationally at Stevenson School for Ministry, Mount Mary College (now University), Loyola University Baltimore, and the Ecumenical Institute of St Mary’s University in Baltimore.

Both Amy and Joe are deeply committed to theological teaching. Joe taught all through parish ministry and Amy served as part of the group of academics charged with preparing study materials for bishops and their spouses at the most recent meeting of the Lambeth Conference.

Their retirement has only deepened their energy for education and service. “After I retired, my prayer was, how can I serve faithfully now?” Joe shares.

The answer, as it turns out, was as a dean for the New Hampshire School for Ministry, in its next chapter. Both Joe and Amy are excited to take on their new role and immerse themselves in the

communities where their students are involved. “It’s one role, so we’ll go together,” Joe says, gesturing toward their example of unity in shared leadership.

“We look forward to building on the great work Dean Kelly has done,” Amy says. “It’s a gift to come into a position with such a good foundation, where people are excited and want to be involved.”

As for moving to New Hampshire, they can’t wait. “We love being out in God’s beautiful creation all four seasons,” Joe says. After temporarily residing in Quebec, Canada, they have been looking for a more permanent, beautiful place to live. They hope to move somewhere in the Diocese where they can hike, bicycle, and run while serving the SFM.

The new deans will be at the Clergy Conference in early October. When you see them, be sure not only to welcome them, but to ask about the research projects they’ll continue in the Granite State.

(Oh – and for extra credit, ask Joe for one of the recipes he’s been making with maple syrup!)