Dickinson, 35, new Episcopal dean, cathedral rector

By any measure, 35 is pretty young to be taking over as dean of a historic diocese and rector of a historic cathedral.

But the Rev. R. Peet Dickinson IV brings more than youth to the role, according to several admiring colleagues.

Dickinson, whose last day as assistant to the rector at St. Michael's Episcopal Church is today, will assume the post of dean of South Carolina and rector of the Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul, the distinguished hub of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina.

It doesn't hurt that among the congregation's goals is — as retiring dean William McKeachie put it, citing a term coined by a friend — the "youthification" of the cathedral. After all, the church sits on Coming Street, steps away from the College of Charleston and Medical University of South Carolina campuses and in the heart of Radcliffeborough, home to many students and young families.

Dickinson plays bluegrass guitar. It's a way to evangelize through music, he says. For years he sang in church choirs. But don't assume he's all hipster and not a serious traditionalist. He's both: well-grounded in Orthodox Anglicanism and well-attuned to the tastes of young people, he says.

Johnny Wallace, senior warden of the cathedral and chairman of the search committee, said the church began looking for a new leader last summer, considered applications from 10 candidates and settled on Dickinson after Bishop Mark Lawrence helped narrow down the field to four. The bishop interviewed each of the finalists.

Wallace said the congregation was "looking for someone to be at the cathedral for a long time." Dickinson, who is married with a 5-year-old daughter, was just the sort of family man they were looking for, Wallace said, also citing the young priest's Orthodox leanings, evangelism and varied tastes in music and worship styles. (The cathedral offers both a traditional and contemporary service at 10:30 a.m. Sundays.)

'Sheltered' upbringing

Dickinson was born in Falls Church, Va. His family moved to Richmond when he was 1, then to Birmingham, Ala., when he was 6. He attended Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he earned a degree in speech communication and minored in religion.

He says he led a "sheltered" life, immersed in the comforts of family and the intellectual life of the university. While in school, he began to feel drawn toward a life in the church, but resisted going straight to seminary. He needed to experience a little more of the secular world, he says.

"The Lord just kind of gave me a 'not yet' when I was in college," he says.

So after graduation, he took a job as a trust officer at Wachovia Bank in Charlotte. It was a good move, he says. He learned about what it means to be "a professional." He learned how to put in a day's work. He interacted with high-net-worth individuals, trying to persuade them to assign Wachovia as their executor, trustee or asset manager.

He learned what it was like to struggle to make his sales goals.

"I was not wired for that kind of work," he says. "God used that as part of the shaping and molding process."

All along, he volunteered with parish-based youth ministries.

"I wanted to get a handle on what the church looks like the other six days of the week," he says.

The right fit

He began thinking seriously about a career change, but the Diocese of North Carolina, which encompasses the middle part of the state and most of the big cities, was too liberal for his tastes, he says. "I was not theologically aligned."

Dickinson began applying for youth ministry jobs, including one in Orangeburg.

Hmm ... small-town South Carolina, he thought at the time. "It didn't necessarily resonate with me," he says diplomatically. But God will have his way.

In 1997, he joined the Church of the Redeemer, a small parish in Orangeburg. He and his soon-to-be wife, Jenny, moved to that town and made a go of it. Jenny attended graduate school at the University of South Carolina in nearby Columbia, earning a master's degree in education.

"You know, you wouldn't think it, but it was the best thing I could have done during that season," he says.

He gained critical experience as a youth minister, got a good sense of the church's inner workings and worked closely with the Rev. M. Dow Sanderson, then Redeemer's rector (now rector of Charleston's Church of the Holy Communion). "I was called upon to do a whole lot of other things."

Then, in 2000, it was time. He and Jenny moved to Oxford, England, so Dickinson could attend Wycliffe Hall, an evangelical college of theology in the Anglican tradition.

It was Oxford that opened the church door in America to him. Wycliffe students enjoy a "summer placement" working in a parish between their second and third school years. Dickinson was assigned the place of his birth, Falls Church. Before long, the Rev. Rick Belser, rector of St. Michael's in Charleston, called Dickinson with an invitation: Belser's assistant, the Rev. Al Zadig, was leaving to serve in a Maryland parish. Would Dickinson be interested in the position?

"I just thought I'd hit the jackpot," Dickinson says. He started in June 2003.

What goes around comes around.

Sanderson left Orangeburg to become rector of Holy Communion. Zadig left Maryland to return as rector of St. Michael's. And Dickinson is leaving St. Michael's for the cathedral.

Sanderson says he is not surprised by Dickinson's ascent. In Orangeburg, the youth minister demonstrated his skills not only with young people but with all people of the parish, Sanderson says. He was "young, cool and affable." He was well-rounded. He was a musician. And he could preach a good sermon on Easter Sunday.

"One of the things about living in a small community like Orangeburg is it really becomes like family," Sanderson says. "He began to exercise some of the prerogatives of a clergyman."

Ready to serve

The Very Rev. William McKeachie, retiring as dean and rector of the cathedral, first met Dickinson at Redeemer during a guest preacher appearance and remembers his guitar music.

McKeachie says the young priest is taking on a big responsibility, "But I think he is prepared for it, and well-qualified for it."

In an interview with Pat Scott to be published soon by the church, McKeachie describes the task: "The office of the dean is more a matter of relating the Cathedral institutionally to the diocese and the wider Church. The dean develops whatever role reflects his particular gifts of ministry and whatever role the bishop assigns to him as a diocesan leader. The dean is an embodiment of the corporate witness of the Cathedral in the mission of the entire diocese."

Dickinson will assist Lawrence in "the nurturing of Biblical Anglicans for a global age," McKeachie told Scott. "The people of Charleston and of this Cathedral need to be in the forefront of that vision and that mission."

Dickinson says he is a "joyful and oftentimes amazed participant" in the life of the diocese and the journey God has designed for him.

"That's how I can enter this job, that's in most ways beyond me, with some confidence" — for it is God's strength that is made perfect through man's weakness.