The Rev. Beth Scriven has spent her entire adult life ministering in congregations, camps, and campus ministries around the Midwest. After her ordination to the priesthood in 2008, she spent seven joyful years as the Associate Rector at St. Clare’s, Ann Arbor (but living in Ypsi!), where her ministry focused on youth, young adults, conflict resolution, and small group discipleship. In 2015, she moved to St. Louis to become the Chaplain at Rockwell House Episcopal Campus Ministry, which drew primarily from the campuses of Washington University in St. Louis and St. Louis University. During her years in St. Louis, she also served as a General Convention deputy, helped create model anti-harassment policies for the Episcopal Church, and met Jesus in the streets as a protest chaplain. She returns to Ypsi from Brownsburg, IN, where she companioned the five-year-old congregation of Good Samaritan through their first-ever clergy transition. Beth loves to read and is continuously shaped by the theology of Howard Thurman and James Martin, the examples of Oscar Romero and Pauli Murray, the fictional worlds of Madeleine L’Engle and N.K. Jemisin, and the analyses of Priya Parker and Brené Brown. In her life outside church, she loves cooking for people, listening to the Indigo Girls, repeatedly watching Heartstopper, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The West Wing, and laughing at anything and everything.
Ezra Donner – Music Director
At age sixteen, Ezra Donner left his hometown of Buffalo, New York, to pursue his dream of a life in music. In the decades since, he has traveled the world composing, performing, conducting, and teaching, with performances in New York’s Carnegie Hall and throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. Ezra has received awards and recognition from The American Prize Competition, the Respighi Prize Competition, the Music Teachers’ National Association, and the 2nd Annual G. Gershwin International Music Competition. He served as Music Director at The Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism from 2017-2020, and has been a frequent Music Director with The University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society since 2015. Ezra is an alumnus of lnterlochen Arts Academy, University of Michigan, and Indiana University, where he earned his Doctor of Music Degree in 2015. He is also an alumnus of lnterlochen Arts Camp, the John Duffy Institute for New Opera, Brevard Music Center, and Miami Music Festival. His teachers have included Claude Baker, Don Freund, P.Q. Phan, Christopher Harding, Michael Colgrass, Bright Sheng, and William Bolcom.
Elizabeth Adie Thompson – Parish Administrator
Elizabeth is an Ypsilanti resident and a long-time member of St. Luke’s. She also works as a life coach, teaches as a health educator for the Diabetes Prevention Program, and serves on the Washtenaw County Commission on Aging and the Citizen’s Advisory Board for the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office.
Janet Symonette – Church School Director
Janet has been a member of St. Luke’s since 2010, a Church School teacher since 2012, and is the Church School Director from 2017. She has two children who attend Church School. She is very involved with St. Luke’s Church activities, and with a number of community organizations. She has a lot of energy to bring to St. Luke’s children to help them to be closer to God, to the St. Luke’s congregation, and to their church family around the world.
Rector and Staff
The Rev. Beth Scriven – Interim Rector
The Rev. Beth Scriven has spent her entire adult life ministering in congregations, camps, and campus ministries around the Midwest. After her ordination to the priesthood in 2008, she spent seven joyful years as the Associate Rector at St. Clare’s, Ann Arbor (but living in Ypsi!), where her ministry focused on youth, young adults, conflict resolution, and small group discipleship. In 2015, she moved to St. Louis to become the Chaplain at Rockwell House Episcopal Campus Ministry, which drew primarily from the campuses of Washington University in St. Louis and St. Louis University. During her years in St. Louis, she also served as a General Convention deputy, helped create model anti-harassment policies for the Episcopal Church, and met Jesus in the streets as a protest chaplain. She returns to Ypsi from Brownsburg, IN, where she companioned the five-year-old congregation of Good Samaritan through their first-ever clergy transition. Beth loves to read and is continuously shaped by the theology of Howard Thurman and James Martin, the examples of Oscar Romero and Pauli Murray, the fictional worlds of Madeleine L’Engle and N.K. Jemisin, and the analyses of Priya Parker and Brené Brown. In her life outside church, she loves cooking for people, listening to the Indigo Girls, repeatedly watching Heartstopper, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The West Wing, and laughing at anything and everything.
Ezra Donner – Music Director
At age sixteen, Ezra Donner left his hometown of Buffalo, New York, to pursue his dream of a life in music. In the decades since, he has traveled the world composing, performing, conducting, and teaching, with performances in New York’s Carnegie Hall and throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. Ezra has received awards and recognition from The American Prize Competition, the Respighi Prize Competition, the Music Teachers’ National Association, and the 2nd Annual G. Gershwin International Music Competition. He served as Music Director at The Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism from 2017-2020, and has been a frequent Music Director with The University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society since 2015. Ezra is an alumnus of lnterlochen Arts Academy, University of Michigan, and Indiana University, where he earned his Doctor of Music Degree in 2015. He is also an alumnus of lnterlochen Arts Camp, the John Duffy Institute for New Opera, Brevard Music Center, and Miami Music Festival. His teachers have included Claude Baker, Don Freund, P.Q. Phan, Christopher Harding, Michael Colgrass, Bright Sheng, and William Bolcom.
Elizabeth Adie Thompson – Parish Administrator
Elizabeth is an Ypsilanti resident and a long-time member of St. Luke’s. She also works as a life coach, teaches as a health educator for the Diabetes Prevention Program, and serves on the Washtenaw County Commission on Aging and the Citizen’s Advisory Board for the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office.
Janet Symonette – Church School Director
Janet has been a member of St. Luke’s since 2010, a Church School teacher since 2012, and is the Church School Director from 2017. She has two children who attend Church School. She is very involved with St. Luke’s Church activities, and with a number of community organizations. She has a lot of energy to bring to St. Luke’s children to help them to be closer to God, to the St. Luke’s congregation, and to their church family around the world.