Christ Episcopal Church in Sag Harbor Has a New Rector

Christ Episcopal Church in Sag Harbor, which has been without a pastor since the Reverend Karen Campbell retired in early 2022, welcomed the Reverend Cecily Broderick Guerra as its new rector last weekend.

The appointment marks a homecoming for Broderick Guerra. As a child, she summered with her family in Azurest, and her parents, Dr. Cecil and Mercedes Broderick, retired to the village, where both were active in the congregation, and Cecil Broderick served on the Village Board.

After 34 years in the ministry, Broderick Guerra was planning to retire when she was asked by the bishop to come to Christ Church, where “membership has fallen off precipitously — especially since COVID,” she said. The falloff in church attendance is hardly a local problem. “What is being experienced out east with churches is happening across the United States,” she said.

Broderick Guerra said it was important to note that the diocese did not send her to Sag Harbor to close the church. Furthermore, she added, the congregation is committed to its survival.

The diocese, she said, “felt both a need and an opportunity in Sag Harbor that made it worth not closing it down,” she said, “and the congregation was willing to take a huge risk to see if they can make it work.”

Typically, Broderick Guerra said, when a church is experiencing a decline in attendance, the pastor will throw out any number of ideas, hoping for one to take root.

Instead, she said the path forward is for the congregation to work together — and with the broader community — to find ways to make the church relevant.

“If Christ Church is only looking at itself to say, ‘Hey, how do we maintain this historic building and this grand Tiffany window, and how do we do that all by ourselves?’ that’s not really why the church was invented,” she said. “The church wasn’t invented to become a private club for a select number of people. The church was invented so communities would be uplifted and see possibility where there is impossibility.”

Since her ordination, Broderick Guerra has served in the Dioceses of Long Island and New York. She first served as associate priest at St. Martha’s Church in the Bronx before becoming canon pastor at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan. She also served 11 years as rector of St. John’s Church in Hempstead and two stints at St. Phillip’s Church in Harlem, where she was first curate and later priest-in-charge.

For 13 years, she was a vice president at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, where she supervised the pastoral care and education program, patient relations and guest relations. Most recently, she served at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Forest Hills.

Broderick Guerra said she hoped to hit the ground running in Sag Harbor, where she plans to meet with congregants, local organizations, and other church leaders. But she said she knows the job will not be easy or quick, suggesting during a recent interview that a follow-up be held in 18 months to gauge the congregation’s progress.

Broderick Guerra said her parents were not the kind of people who came to the East End to simply enjoy themselves. Instead, she said, they recognized the importance of giving back to the community. She said she hoped to bring the same kind of commitment to Sag Harbor, and urged others to join her.

“Everyone should know nothing is impossible when we work together,” she said. “When we work together in the spirit, anything is possible.”