Annual Meeting
Sunday, January 26
10:00 am Holy Eucharist (One Service Only for this Sunday)
11:15 am Light Lunch & Annual Meeting (Cathedral)
St. James Cathedral will hold the 2025 Annual Meeting on Sunday, January 26, beginning with one combined worship service at 10:00am and followed immediately by the Annual Meeting in the Cathedral. A light lunch and childcare will be provided. Please fill out this Google Form to inform us of your attendance and indicate any dietary restrictions.
At the Annual Meeting, we will take a retrospective look at the year just past, we will hear the latest updates on our strategic level initiatives, and look forward together toward what lies ahead in 2025. We will elect new representatives to the Cathedral Chapter. Please take the time to read the bios of the nominees below.
Cathedral Chapter Member Nominees
Susan Fickling SENIOR WARDEN
I am a cradle Episcopalian who has attended St. James on and off since moving to Chicago in 1998 and regularly since the birth of my first child in 2009. My kids Alba and Ashwin sing with the choristers and are active in the Youth Group. We generally attend the Sunday 9:00 a.m. service and Wednesday evensong.
One of the things that is most important to me about St. James is our role in the Episcopal Community as well as in the Chicago area including the amount of social outreach we do. Our family supports the feeding ministry both as volunteers and financially and I would love to see more community outreach as part of the mission of St James.
In my “day job”, I am a managing director at Kroll LLC, where I run our Midwest Transfer Pricing practice. I have an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA from Scripps College and am a Certified Business Economist™.
I have served on the Cathedral Chapter for the past five years and would be honored to serve as the next Senior Warden.
Allen Moye JUNIOR WARDEN
This year will mark 20 years since I relocated to Chicago from the east coast. After my arrival in Chicago, I visited different churches but felt most at home at St. James Cathedral. I have always been impressed with the energy and outreach programs of St. James. I have helped with the feeding ministry, Summer in the City, and supported the Revive Christmas Basket program; three very successful and important ways that the church connects with the community beyond the
walls of its building.
I served on Chapter and helped on the Capital Campaign. I have served on the Usher Ministry since 2016 and was Head Usher from 2020-23. I enjoy welcoming regular worshipers and visitors alike, to a place filled with the Holy Spirit and the wonders of God’s works. St. James is a sacred space with a significant connection to the Diocese and the city of Chicago.
I believe that we are at the beginning of what will be a momentous future. I am grateful for the opportunity to have served as Junior Warden over the past year. I would be honored to continue in this role at such an important time in the life of the Diocese and cathedral.
Ryan Middlebrook CHAPTER MEMBER
My wife Charlotte and I reside in Oak Park and were initially drawn to St James by the musical talent and engaging sermons. We have two daughters – Stella, 8 and Nora, 5 (known to occasionally whistle and/or dance through hymns), and we frequent the 9:00 a.m. service. If you see us at the 11:00 a.m. service, it is likely that we have forgotten
about the Chicago Marathon and have subsequently dodged runners to arrive two hours behind schedule.
We appreciate that the St. James community welcomes all of God’s diverse people through the cathedral’s warm, welcoming environment, community outreach and the meal ministry. Through the meal ministry, specifically, we work with our daughters (and other Sunday School students) to assemble food bags for those in need, but our participation in this activity also facilitates important parent/child conversations regarding our responsibility to the less fortunate.
Professionally, I manage a technical sales team which primarily sells into mission-critical power quality applications (e.g. missile defense, emergency communications, etc.). I enjoy a broad range of outdoor activities with friends and family and have been known to prioritize climbing the next mountain or chasing the next bird long past the point where quitting might have been preferable. I speak fluent Spanish (mostly Argentine dialect/accent), which our children have adopted even as they deride the English vowel shifts honed through a childhood in KY & OH in their “normal” Northern Illinois English. My hope is that they one day appreciate the irony.
Michelle Mitchell CHAPTER MEMBER
As a lifelong Episcopalian, I’ve always been drawn to the liturgy, which makes me feel at home. Arriving in Chicago in 2022, I prioritized finding a new church. St. James Cathedral was just a few blocks from where I lived, and walking through the chapel doors for the 8 a.m. spoken Eucharist told me that I was home.
I was asked to share my “why” during this year's stewardship drive. There have been times when I was able to support a church monetarily but could not give more of my time. Conversely, there were times when I couldn’t provide as much financially, but I had time to serve as an acolyte, Sunday school teacher, and vestry member. This season, I am blessed to be able to contribute financially and serve the church community.
I grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and attended the University of Michigan for undergraduate and medical school. After practicing in several locations across the country, I joined my current organization, which focuses on providing primary care to seniors in under-served communities. I am privileged to co-lead our Midwest division, which has nearly 50 clinics caring for this vulnerable population. I also volunteer with the Northwestern chapter of Chicago Street Medicine.
Eric Weddle CHAPTER MEMBER
My family and I were drawn to St. James initially by the Chorister program where my children Amalia and Nicholas have been active members. I was thankful for the high-quality music education they were receiving, for the way they were drawn into the service, and for the wonderful music I got to enjoy from the pews. But I was also looking for a place to belong for myself as well.
At Saint James, I’ve found a church that values the Gospel, welcomes God’s people from all walks of life, and seeks to live out the teachings of Christ. On Sundays, I tend to most often attend the 9:00 am service, but you can usually find me between services in the welcome center gathering Sunday School children or in the PreK/K classroom downstairs.
Aside from working in the Children’s Ministry, I especially enjoy making new connections, and I try to meet someone new each week. Over the years, many of these meetings have led to deep friendships. Outside of Sundays, I fill a variety of managerial roles for a construction trades company that operates primarily in the central and mountain west states. Occasionally I will don a tool belt as well.
Diocesan Convention Delegate Nominees
Susan Fickling
Allen Moye
Lance Sy
I arrived in Chicago and St. James Cathedral from Canada after grad school, in mid-July 2018. Having newly discovered Anglican traditions of worship, I was intentionally looking to test the waters at an Episcopal congregation, specifically, one with a choral program open to nonprofessional singers. My first week in the city, I auditioned and was singing with the drop-in Summer Choir. I was confirmed and received into the Episcopal Church at Easter Vigil in 2019. What resounds with me is the rooted intentionality that seemingly pervades every facet of life here — worship, formation, community, service — a right & good ordering of priorities that authentically meets every individual just as they are as they come through the Cathedral’s doors, even as it invites, challenges, convicts, and inspires us to new or deeper, always real and relevant ways in which we might lean into our baptismal covenant and live out our calling as a community of faith and a people of God.
I worship principally at the 11am Choral Eucharist and commune regularly with/through the Young Adults, Wednesday-night Formation, and Sunday-morning Forum. I am blessed to have the privilege of serving in support of our Liturgical Ministries in the Reader, Usher, and Tech/AV roles; with the Meals Ministry (Sandwiches); and as part of the Stewardship Committee for the 2025 Pledge Drive. Outside of the Cathedral, my present vocation is in the domain of architecture & design.
Nominees for Finance Commission
George Culver FINANCE COMMISSION MEMBER
I am a former member of the Cathedral Chapter and currently serve on the Finance Commission. I also served St. James as Assistant Treasurer for eleven years and as chair of the investment committee for nine. I serve the Diocese as a Trustee of the Common Fund and Episcopal Charities as a member of their finance committee. I also serve as Treasurer for Brent House, The Episcopal Council at the University of Chicago.
My experience in the Futures Industry gives me a sharp perspective on matters in investment and finance. I have helped many members of St. James with large gifts and bequests. I am a life-long Episcopalian. I graduated from an Episcopal grade school (Trinity, New York City). I am married to my college (Yale) sweetheart, Marianne Culver. Our son Leland grew up at St. James, graduated from Amherst College, and is back in Chicago where he is active again at St. James Cathedral.
Michael Paik FINANCE COMMISSION MEMBER
Mike has been attending St. James since 2015. Growing up in a Korean-Presbyterian community, not a “cradle” Episcopal like his wife Olivia, it was a huge adjustment. Eventually, there were only so many newcomers lunches Mike could attend before he was firmly no longer new. Since then, Mike and Olivia have welcomed their first son, Julian, and are excited for him to grow up at St. James. He was first elected to the Finance Commission in 2024.
Mike has 11+ years of consulting experience. He is a Chicago native, with an MBA from the Booth School of Business and an undergraduate economics degree from the University of Chicago.