Canon Mark Edw. Childers

Parish Administrator and Director of Music & Liturgy

Mark Childers

A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Mark Childers has served as the organist for The Church of the Holy Faith in Santa Fe, New Mexico, since 2006, and as organist & choirmaster since 2009. Mark believes the choir, as an ensemble, must support the spiritual message of the liturgy. “I want them to feel a sense of accomplishment. I would never program anything that would compromise that.” A collateral goal of making the choir work also means being responsive to the wide range of parishioners. Many of Holy Faith’s members come from other traditions. “This church is very broad in terms of where its members come from. We try to make each service accessible to everyone. This is a very sensory experience. The music of the Church doesn’t just support the service, it raises it; it brings the people of God to that place where heaven and earth meet.”

Since 2011, Mark has served Holy Faith in the full-time position as their Parish Administrator and Director of Liturgy & Music, overseeing all aspects of the life and activities of the parish.

Outside of Holy Faith, Mark is an active member of The Association of Anglican Musicians. Founded in 1966, AAM recognizes that the music of the church finds its primary expression within the framework of the liturgy, this Association takes as its purpose the elevation, stimulation, and support of music and the allied arts in all their aspects in the Episcopal Church and the larger Anglican tradition, and especially in their relationship to liturgy. Mark also serves as Canon for Liturgy & Music for the Diocese of the Rio Grande, a position he has held since 2018, and as a 3-time Deputy to General Convention. Since the fall of 2018, Mark has served the wider Episcopal Church as a member of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, currently serving as its Chairman.

Kathlene Ritch

Director, Royal School of Church Music and Bell Choir

Kathlene Ritch

Kathlene Ritch

Soprano Kathlene Ritch was raised in an academic family of musicians and theatrical talent. Kathlene sings in the choir at Church of the Holy Faith and serves as Director of the Bell Choir and the Royal School of Church Music program,  a ministry that she embraces with boundless energy.

The structured approach of RSCM is results oriented, combining sight training and ear training while simultaneously exposing children to the classical repertoire. As students progress, they also achieve real rewards and recognition and eventual certification by the organization. Students in RSCM range in age from six to 14. The program is open to the Santa Fe community at large. “I feel like I’m giving back something of value by helping these youngsters find their own voices or get over the butterflies that come with live performance,” she says. Able to benefit from highly personalized instruction from a voice professional, students can eventually earn a place in the 11 a.m. Choral Eucharist on Sunday.

Kathlene came to Santa Fe in 2011, after living and working professionally in Austin, TX, where she studied music at The University of Texas, and New York City, where she sang professionally and earned the opportunity to perform with the New York Philharmonic. In addition to her singing duties as a soprano in the choir at Holy Faith, she remains active in the Santa Fe Desert Chorale and is a touring member of Conspirare, a world-class choral ensemble based in her hometown of Austin.

Donna Lukacs

Parish Secretary

Donna Lukacs

Donna Lukacs joined Holy Faith as Parish Secretary in January,2015.  A native of New Jersey, she graduated from Rutgers University where she studied German, French and music. After college she worked in customer service in a software firm where she became fluent in a different kind of language – the language of computers. This led to a fifteen-year career as an IT consultant.

In August 2011, she left her job at an insurance company in Portland Oregon, packed up her car, and moved to Santa Fe – a great leap of faith since she had not been in this part of the world before

Before coming to Holy Faith, Donna gained experience in the non-profit world as the Operations Manager for the Desert Chorale.

A painter, who also works in pastels and mixed media, Donna has found inspiration in the light and landscape of New Mexico.

Lisa Emory

Coordinator, Family and Children’s Ministries

Lisa Emory

Lisa Emory has had the joy of working with people of all ages in many diverse settings; teaching and exploring together the things that inspire her most. A native of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, Lisa’s life has always been steeped in creativity and spiritually. She studied theater and music at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she became fascinated with the exploration of the human experience and the inter-relatedness of all things.

Lisa is a RYT certified yoga teacher with a special certificate in adaptive yoga.  She has a depth of knowledge of human body systems and how experience influences the structures of the nervous system, and effect who we are as individuals.

In 2010, Lisa moved to Santa Fe, where she began leading workshops and groups. She developed and taught a Christian Yoga curriculum for Holy Faith’s, ecumenical partner, First Presbyterian Church.

In 2014, Lisa published, Grace Leads, I Follow; Poems of Trauma and Transformation, which won both a New Mexico/Arizona Book Award and a National Independent Spiritual Book Award.

Some of her most cherished personal experiences include singing at St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, deep within the cool sandstone walls of the Shrine of the Sacred Cave of St. Benedict, in Subiaco Italy, and in the mist of early morning among rows of silent white crosses at the Normandy America Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.

Lisa Emory is proud to be a member of a wonderfully blended family who enjoys traveling, outdoor recreation and saying just about anything that can make another family member laugh out loud. Lisa is thrilled to offer her diverse skills, within her beloved community here at Holy Faith, as the Coordinator of Family and Children’s Ministry.

Virginia Lopez

Librarian

Marcos Castillo

Facilities Manager

Rocio Salazar

Housekeeping