
The Rev. Stephen J. Rhoades
Rector (September 2013 - May 2022)
The Rev. Stephen J. Rhoades began his ministry as Rector of St. James Episcopal Church on September 1st, 2013.
Father Stephen was born and raised in the Chicago area. He received a B.A. in 1990 from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) where he double-majored in Political Science, Russian and East European Studies as an Illinois General Assembly Scholar. In 1993 he received a J.D. and a Certificate in International and Comparative Law from the Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he met his wife, Anna Notation-Rhoades. He practiced law for eleven years, concluding his law career as a law partner at Dommermuth, Brestal, Cobine & West Ltd., a suburban Chicago land development law firm. In August of 2004, he began seminary studies at the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he received a Master of Divinity, optime merens, in May of 2007.
Following seminary, he served as Curate at All Saints Episcopal Church in Palo Alto, California. In November 2008, he accepted a call to serve at All Saints Episcopal Church in Winter Park, Florida, where he served as Assistant Priest for Children, Youth, and Family Ministry. While in the Diocese of Central Florida he served on the Congregational Development Commission, the Diocesan Disciplinary Board, as an instructor at the Institute for Christian Studies, and as Chaplain to the Diocesan choir camp. Stephen and Anna have five children: Ian, Nate, Sarah, and the twins, Caleb and Edith.