A FEW WORDS ABOUT OUR CHURCH LEADERSHIP

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An ordained Anglican priest, Matt Arndt has  been a pastor for over 20 years. Matt started Bread of Life because he felt called to establish a church in Madison that connects contemporary culture to Christian truth; a church that gives people a place to heal and renew; a church that unashamedly lives out the Good News of Jesus Christ declared in the Bible.

Matt attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he was a part of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He obtained his M.Div. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

A Madison native, Matt has been married since 1983 to his treasured wife, Sue, a registered nurse. A proud and active father of four delightful young men, Matt finds his spare time filled with football, cars, woodworking, good music, meeting new people and ... more football.

He prefers to be addressed simply as "Matt" (rather than "Father Matt"). He is easy to get to know--being in his own words "just a regular guy."

Bishop of the Upper Midwest, Dean of the Greater Chicago Deanery, Rector

Stewart is married to Katherine, and they have six children. Their first love and passion is raising their children and developing their family as a “domestic church." They also consider it one of the great honors of their lives to serve Church of the Resurrection, where they marvel at the move of God they have been swept up in for the last 25 years.

Stewart first came to Church of the Resurrection as a Wheaton College junior on Palm Sunday, 1988. Katherine and he learned from and served under Fr. William and Anne Beasley for a decade at Resurrection. During this time, Stewart completed his Master's in Theology at Wheaton College Graduate School (where he was awarded the Kenneth Kantzer prize for theology) and ministered on college campuses in Chicago with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. The combination of Resurrection, Wheaton College, and InterVarsity provided a most dynamic training season for the ministry. Here he learned how to lead (especially in regard to vision and liturgy), how to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit, and how to read and preach God's Word and to study the teachings of the Great Tradition.

Stewart became rector of Resurrection in the winter of 1999. The last fifteen years have been a season of learning the power of Jesus amidst the immense pressures and joys of priestly ministry. With a focus on the presence of God, prayer and fasting, and a collaborative and creative leadership culture, Resurrection has quintupled in average Sunday attendance. In most recent years there has been an increase in conversions. Through a true miracle, Resurrection has transitioned from 20 years of being a mobile church to a new building—a Chicago Modernist factory that has been renovated into a House of God.

Another ministry passion of Stewart's is raising up leaders and church planters. In 2013, Resurrection sent out their fifth and sixth church planters.

In September 2013, Stewart was consecrated Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Upper Midwest (ACNA) and has a vision to see a Revival of Word and Sacrament infused by the Holy Spirit in the Upper Midwest.

Stewart is currently working on the completion of his Doctor of Ministry.

He loves running; reading novels, biographies, and leadership books; and spending as much time as possible in forests and streams with his children.

Archbishop Wood was elected as the first Bishop of the Diocese of the Carolinas by the College of Bishops on June 5, 2012. He was consecrated Bishop at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Mt. Pleasant, SC by Archbishop Robert Duncan on August 25, 2013. Co-Consecrators included ACNA Bishops Roger Ames, Alphonza Gadsen, and John Guernsey.

He was installed as Rector of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Mt. Pleasant, SC by Bishop Edward L. Salmon, XIII Bishop of South Carolina, on September 1, 2000. Under Bishop Wood’s leadership, St. Andrew’s was described by the Charleston Post & Courier as, “one of the Lowcountry’s biggest church success stories,” growing to a membership of more than 3200 and planting new churches in Goose Creek, SC, and downtown Charleston.

Born October 12, 1963, Archbishop Wood is the oldest of two sons born to the late Elanore Mitchell (Smith) Wood and the late Jewell Nelson Wood. He attended Lake Catholic High School in Mentor, Ohio, graduating in 1981. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from Cleveland State University in 1986. He then completed his priestly formation at the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, where he earned a Master of Divinity.

Archbishop Wood married Jacqueline Elizabeth (Benner) Wood on February 1, 1986. Together, they have four sons and eight grandchildren.

Archbishop Wood was ordained to the diaconate on June 15, 1991, and to the priesthood on February 1, 1992, by Bishop James R. Moodey, VIII Bishop of Ohio. He was appointed Vicar of St. Anne-in-the-Fields in Madison, Ohio where he served until April of 1995. He then served as Associate Rector and Chief of Staff at St. Luke’s parish in Bath, Ohio until his move to South Carolina.