Rector at Grace Episcopal a Tulsa native

Cathy Spaulding, Muskogee Phoenix, Okla.
·2 min read

May 14—Grace Episcopal Church's new rector, the Rev. Chris Cole, recalled settling easily into his latest calling.

"From the first time I walked in, it's really felt like home," Cole said. "That's sort of the way I approach things, as well. I want to approach people from a space of being very welcoming and open and hospitable. I want people to feel that church is a home away from home and that's the way I was treated from Day One at Grace."

Cole started at Grace in early April.

"I became aware of the position by our bishop," Cole said. "He let me know that Muskogee was looking for a rector."

The Rev. Bob Wickizer retired as Grace rector last summer.

A Tulsa native, Cole said he came into the ministry in middle age after 20 years in information technology.

"About 2016, I started to feel a call that maybe there might be another vocation in the second half of my life," he said. "I spent the first half of my life in one vocation, and I began to feel that maybe God was calling me into something different."

He recalled exploring the call with his church and with the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma.

"It was a vocation we all agreed was something I should pursue," he said. "I began to feel God's call on my life, and it was steering me toward ordained ministry."

Cole since has served Trinity Episcopal in Tulsa and the Church of the Ascension in Silver Spring, Maryland.

He said he comes to Grace with a desire to support and empower their current ministries.

"I believe in collaborative ministry," he said. "Whatever goals and visions I would have I would collaboratively develop with the vestry. It will never by my vision; it will be our shared vision."

Cole said church members want their church "to be a place where people feel hope in the presence of God."

"If you are in a place in your life, or life circumstances make you feel less hopeful about your future, we want to be there to help you see the existence of hope, both now and for tomorrow," he said. "Ministry is something we all engage in. Ministry is work that each individual person does. The community at Grace is really living into their ministry work."

Meet the Rev. Chris Cole

AGE: 53.

HOMETOWN: Tulsa.

EDUCATION: Jenks High School; University of Kansas; Master's in computer science, University of Tulsa; master of divinity, Virginia Theological Seminary.

PROFESSION: Rector at Grace Episcopal Church.

FAMILY: Spouse, Howard Doak; dog, Maggie; cat, Jinx.

HOBBIES: Salt water aquariums, reading, traveling, running.