The Rev. Keith Patterson is a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester where since 2016 he has served as the Rector of The Episcopal Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene, aka Two Saints. Prior to coming to Rochester, Keith served as Curate/Assistant Priest at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Concord, New Hampshire. He was ordained in the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont as transitional deacon in 2013 and served as a deacon at a very small church, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Wells, Vermont. Following his January 2014 ordination at St. James Episcopal Church in Arlington, Vermont, he briefly served there as a non-stipendiary priest.
Keith earned his certification as a Board-Certified Healthcare Chaplain (BCCI/retired) during his ordination process. He completed hours towards his certification at Havenwood Heritage Heights, a continuing care retirement community in Concord, NH. In the Diocese of Rochester Keith has served on the Commission on Ministry, two three-year terms on the Diocesan Council (Budget and Parish Development Grant subcommittees), and as Deputy to the 81st General Convention. Being civic-minded, he is beginning his second year as a member of the Rochester Police Advisory Board. Keith recently returned from a three-month sabbatical that was funded by a Lilly Clergy Renewal Grant. Always eager to learn how to do ministry effectively, Keith was in the first cohort of the Berkeley Yale Divinity School “Leader’s Way” program in the summer of 2023.
Keith came to EDS in the Fall of 2005 as an MDiv student. Keith shares, “I had visited two seminaries before my Rector, also an EDS Alum suggested that I visit. The diversity and inclusion of the LBGTQIA+ people made me rethink an earlier preference for seminary. The mission statement to ‘advance God’s justice, compassion and reconciliation’ felt right. EDS exposed me to a church that was okay with the messiness of being in community and expressing as Dr. Christopher Duraisingh would say, 'God’s multicolored wisdom.’ Now more than ever, in our increasingly divided world (and church) the values EDS instilled in me are needed.”
Keith lives with his husband, Larry and their two cats who own the household, Harold and Gracie, in the North Winton Village neighborhood of Rochester, NY.