Saint Thomas the Apostle

Episcopal Church

Our Vestry

Our Vestry is a team of elected volunteers who serve on rotating three-year terms, faithfully tending the behind-the-scenes work that keeps St. Thomas safe, sustainable, and thriving. With care and discernment, they steward our finances, facilities, and shared resources, helping to ensure that the daily life of the parish runs smoothly and responsibly.

In partnership with our clergy, the Vestry also looks ahead: prayerfully considering how best to support the mission and future of our church. Their work is often quiet and unseen, but it is essential, making it possible for St. Thomas to remain a place of worship, welcome, and service to the wider community.  St. Thomas is grateful for their leadership!

officers

Jonelle Grichuk

Senior Warden

Jonelle is a cradle Episcopalian and is honored to be serving as Senior Warden. She actively serves in many ministries at St. Thomas including as a verger, lay reader, lay eucharistic minister, DOK and a volunteer for Apollo Respite. Jonelle loves to scrapbook and take long walks with her rather large goldendoodle, Charlie!

Cathie Delgado

Junior Warden

Cathie is actively involved in many areas of life at St. Thomas, serving on the Art Committee, Flower Guild, and Altar Guild, and is also a member of the Daughters of the King. She maintains the church’s Blessing Bags and helps care for the everyday details that keep parish life running smoothly.

Along with her husband, Louis, she enjoys helping with a variety of church events, especially the cake auctions! She created and maintains the Children’s Corner, set up the Prayground, helped decorate and stock the nursery, and assisted in organizing materials for Godly Play. Ensuring that St. Thomas is a welcoming and nurturing place for families and children is very important to her.

Eric Sample

Treasurer

Eric has been a member of St. Thomas since May 2021 and has served the parish through the audit of the 2021 financials and as Treasurer since February 2023. Outside of St. Thomas, he is a CPA, the proud father of three young men active in the youth ministry, and happily married to Maite Sample.

Kate Newmyer

Vestry Clerk

Kate Newmyer is an educator with over 15 years of teaching experience in both Clear Creek ISD and Colorado. She enjoys a wide range of interests, including music, knitting, weaving, sewing, reading, cooking, dogs, and closely following the Iditarod and its sled dogs. Kate is a registered Adult Leader and Merit Badge Counselor with Scouting America and currently serves as vestry clerk.

Class of 2024

Pat
Doughty

Pat has volunteered with numerous organizations, including Interfaith Caring Ministries, the Salvation Army, Louisiana UMC GRACE Camp, Epiphany Ministry of Louisiana, and Escape from Poverty. She has also served in Methodist Church stewardship, congregational care, mission, and outreach ministries.

At St. Thomas, Pat serves in the choir and participates in ministries such as Lord of the Streets and the Fall Festival, where she enjoys building relationships and welcoming new friends into the church community.

Deborah Rice

Deborah is a retired Speech‑Language Pathologist with a 30‑year career in Texas public schools, specializing in treatment of secondary stutterers, students with autism, and non‑verbal students using assistive technology.

In 1995, she became a commercial pilot rated in lighter‑than‑air aircraft and later added airplane and instrument ratings. She has worshiped in many Episcopal churches throughout her adult life and now, having settled in Nassau Bay, considers St. Thomas her church home.

Paul Bielski

Class of 2025

Marty Chenault

Marty is a Certified Public Accountant with 35 years of experience serving both for‑profit and nonprofit clients of all sizes. Nine of those years were spent practicing in Washington, D.C., with Big Four firms, and for the past 16 years he has maintained a practice in Nassau Bay.

He is deeply grateful for his time at Saint Thomas and values the Episcopal Church’s via media—its balance of ancient tradition, Scripture, and reason. He especially appreciates Saint Thomas as an open and welcoming community, without exception.

Dee Hicks

Dee was born, baptized, raised, confirmed, and married at St. George’s Anglican Church in Nassau, Bahamas. After moving to Texas, she began working as a paralegal, ultimately deciding that law school was not the right path for her. She is currently employed with a small law firm in the Galleria area as a paralegal and office administrator, a role she has held for the past ten years.

She has served the Church in many capacities, including three terms on the vestry, altar guild, lector, acolyte, Sunday School teacher, and ECW, and has twice spearheaded the Fall Festival. Additionally, she served on the Vera Gang Scholarship Committee from August 2018 through March 2024, including three years as chair.

Richard Kuehn

Richard and his family (wife, Alisa, and their children, Kinley and Sheridan) have been attending St. Thomas for four years. His vocational journey has included work as an actor, director, and campus minister, and he currently serves as a therapist.

Richard believes St. Thomas embodies a lived gospel of love that the world needs now more than ever. He experiences this most deeply in the church’s worship, music, ministries, and especially at the rail and in the sharing of the Peace.

Julia Tripple, M.D.

Julia Tripple and her family have been members of St. Thomas since 2015. A Houston native who grew up in the Memorial area, Julia met her husband, Bob, at Bucknell University and currently serves as an allergist at UTMB.

Julia and her family are grateful to call St. Thomas home and have enjoyed participating in food distribution, parish forums, and family ministries. She is thankful for the ways the parish has enriched their lives.

Amber Patrick

Raised by parents deeply rooted in ministry, Amber Patrick has spent much of her life seeking to know and understand God with the support of her family in West Texas. She currently serves as Director of State and Federal Programs at Clear Creek ISD, where she works to advance student agency and educational equity.

At St. Thomas, Amber is a member of the Daughters of the King and serves on the Altar Guild and St. Honoré Bread Guild, supporting the spiritual nourishment of the parish through service and community.

Class of 2026

Reginald Perry

Reggie and his family are grateful to call St. Thomas home, having attended for several years and becoming members after COVID.

Raised in Tallahassee, Florida, Reggie was confirmed into the Episcopal Church before moving to Texas.

Reggie holds a degree in Aviation Management from Auburn University and works in the aviation sector supporting private aircraft operations worldwide. He values St. Thomas’s welcoming, inclusive spirit and enjoys serving through ministries such as Apollo Respite for All, monthly food distribution, and verging.

Susan Shroyer

Susan was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Portland State University. After working for the U.S. Navy and DoD, she later returned to engineering in Texas.

She came to St. Thomas in January 2023 and was drawn by its welcoming, inclusive community. Since being confirmed in December 2023, she has served as a verger and lector, joined the Daughters of the King (currently its treasurer), and volunteered with Lord of the Streets and the Fall Festival. She is honored to serve on the Vestry.

Jonathan Smith, Esq.

Jonathan is from Meridian, Mississippi, he made Houston his home in 2000 after clerking for a federal judge in Alabama. He earned undergraduate degrees in philosophy and economics and a law degree from Vanderbilt University and currently serves as a principal at Shipley Snell Montgomery LLP, where he has practiced for 20 years.

He is grateful for the fellowship, outreach ministries, and growing children’s and youth programs at St. Thomas, and for the many ways the parish embodies Christ’s love.