St. George’s Clergy
The Reverend Norm Freeman,
Priest In Charge Under Special Circumstances
Father Norm Freeman has served for over six years as Vicar for St. Michael and All Angels Church in Isla Vista, and Episcopal Chaplain for the University of California, Santa Barbara. Previously, Father Norm served as Curate at St. Paul's Church in Greenwich, Connecticut. These churches grew dramatically during Reverend Norm's tenure. His theological studies include a Masters of Divinity Degree from the General Theological Seminary. Father Norm is also an accomplished, celebrated percussionist with Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees from The Julliard School. In 1999, the Jazz Vespers that he began at St. Paul's inspired a full page story in The New York Times entitled, Where Music and the Ministry Merge . He has performed on four Grammy nominated projects, including the Grammy Award winning New York Philharmonic recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 3 In D Minor .
Father Norm and his wife Lori have been married for twenty three years and have two children. Brady is a communications major in her second year at UCLA, and Chris is a sophomore in high school. We are very pleased that Father Norm and his family will be living in the Rectory close to our church community.
To learn more about Father Norm's musical journey, click the following link to an article that appears in Episcopal Life Online magazine. http://episcopal-life.org/81827_84191_ENG_HTM.htm
To hear Father Norm performing, click on the links following. You will need a program capable of playing mp3 and mp4 files.
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (mp4)
The Reverend Pat McCaughan,
Senior Associate for Parish Life
The Rev. Pat McCaughan has served Southern California congregations for more than nine years. Just prior to her call to St. George's, she was assistant rector for five years at St. Mary's Church in Laguna Beach. She has also served as both priest-in-charge and interim rector at St. Francis of Assisi Church in San Bernardino. In Detroit, Michigan, her hometown, she assisted at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul and was deacon-in-charge at St. Martha's Church, an urban congregation.
Since moving to California in 1998, she has also served on the staff of the Diocese of Los Angeles Communications Department, as senior correspondent for the Episcopal News, and as editor of the clergy newsletter, Angelus. She is also a frequent contributor to the Episcopal News Service of the national church.
Her theological studies include a Masters of Divinity Degree from the General Theological Seminary. She also earned a master's degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York City, and a bachelor's degree in journalism and English from Wayne State University in Detroit.
She is married to the Rev. Keith Yamamoto, associate rector at St. Margaret of Scotland Episcopal Church and School in San Juan Capistrano. They reside in Laguna Niguel.
The Reverend Canon Samuel R. D'Amico
The Reverend Samuel R. D'Amico, Ph.D., was born in Wakefield, Mass., a suburb of Boston. After attending the elementary schools there, he was awarded a scholarship to Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass, from which he was graduated in 1935. He then attended Harvard University, graduating with a B. A. Cum laude in 1939. After teaching Latin at Stony Brook School in Long Island, N. Y. for two years, he entered the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., graduating with a Master of Divinity degree in 1943. He returned to Harvard and worked toward a doctorate at the Graduate School of Education for a year, while assisting at St. Mark's Southboro, Mass. He later completed his studies at the California Graduate School of Theology in Los Angeles.
Full-time ministry began for The Reverend D'Amico in Providence, R. I., where he was the Executive Director of the Diocesan Department of Education and Canon of St. John's Cathedral from 1944 to 1947. During this period, in 1946, he married Virginia Shepard at the Church of the Transfiguration in Edgewood, N. J.
In 1947, he was called to the Diocese of Los Angeles where he served as Rector of St. Athansius in Los Angeles for six years, Holy Faith in Inglewood for nine years, St. James Wilshire for 19 years, and St. John's in Rancho Santa Margarita for four years (after retiring in 1985).