The Very Reverend Gary W. Kriss, D.D.
Parish Priest
with Percy and Clair in Albuquerque
(photo by Maxine Thevenot)

The Very Reverend GARY W. KRISS is a native of Baltimore, Maryland.  A graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Divinity School, Fr. Kriss was ordained in Burlington, Vermont, where he served on the staff of St. Paul’s Cathedral.  In the mid-1970s he was Vicar of St. Mark’s-St. Luke’s parish in Castleton and Fair Haven, Vermont.  He also directed the Rock Point Summer Conferences for young people in Burlington. 

In 1978, he was called to the Cathedral of All Saints in Albany, New York, where he was a Canon of the Cathedral and, from 1984 to 1991, Dean of the Cathedral.  During his thirteen years in Albany, he was elected to a variety of diocesan and ecumenical boards and commissions.  He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Jewish Christian Studies at Siena  College  and  served  as  Episcopal  campus chaplain and president of the board of the interfaith center on the Albany campus of the State University of New York.

From 1992 to 2001, Fr. Kriss was Dean and President of Nashotah House, one of the eleven accredited theological seminaries of the Episcopal Church.  In addition to his administrative and pastoral responsibilities as dean, Fr. Kriss taught various subjects in the seminary curriculum, including pastoral theology and preaching.  At the conclusion of his term of office, the board of trustees conferred on him the honorary degree, Doctor of Divinity.

Fr. Kriss moved to his present home, near Salem, when he retired from the seminary.  From 2001-2002, he served as Interim Rector at St. Paul’s, Church, Troy, and he remained on the staff of the parish until January 2004 as Associate Priest.  He became Vicar of St. Paul’s Church, Salem, in October 2003.  He is a member of the Board of Directors of The Living Church, a weekly magazine serving the Episcopal Church, to which he is also an occasional contributor.  Fr. Kriss also sings in the choir at New Skete Monastery.  His household includes two St. Bernards, Clairvaux and Percy.

From September 2006 through July of 2007, Fr. Kriss was on sabbatical from St. Paul's, and served as interim dean of the Cathedral Church of St. John in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He returned to St. Paul's in August 2007.

 

Bill Briggs at the console of the E. & G.G. Hook organ

A thirty-five year resident of Salem, WILLIAM BRIGGS is well known and respected throughout Saratoga, Washington and Warren counties as a music educator and church musician.  He received his early organ training and experience in the Greater Rochester area (Macedon, Newark, and Palmyra) during his high school years and, upon entering military service after graduation, was appointed chapel organist at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. Returning to civilian life several years later, he held a succession of organist positions while pursuing advanced musical studies at San Antonio College and the University of Illinois. The latter institution awarded him the bachelor’s degree in music education in 1970 and soon thereafter he joined the faculty of Corinth Public Schools, where for 23 years he taught general music courses and directed several choirs. During that same period he undertook graduate study at Russell Sage College and the Saratoga-Potsdam Institute and

served as organist-choirmaster at several area churches, including Christ Church Methodist, Glens Falls, and Bethesda Church (Episcopal), Saratoga Springs. He returned to St. Paul's, Salem, in 2007 and, in addition to playing the parish's historic Hook organ, he works with the schola cantorum which is made up of members of the parish who contribute their musical skills to the further enrichment of worship at St. Paul's. In his leisure Bill is a connoisseur of fine food and spirits.