Senior Chaplain

The Rev. Geoffrey Michael St. John Hoare is St. Ann’s Senior Chaplain following the retirement of The Rev. Dr. Luis León in 2025.

Geoffrey has deep experience in parish ministry, having served St. Alban’s Church in Washington DC, All Saints’, Atlanta GA and St. Paul’s in Alexandria VA He started his ministry as Deacon and Priest at Christ Church in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Along the way he has also taught parish ministry at Virginia Theological Seminary and the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He currently has a coaching practice, primarily for clergy. (www.clergycoachingllc.com)

A native of the United Kingdom, Geoffrey is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead-Cain Scholar. He read theology at Magdalene College, Cambridge and has a Master of Sacred Theology degree (STM) from the Yale Divinity School. He is married to Sage Hoare and they share four adult children. He enjoys cooking and golf, music and reading.

The Rev. Andrew T. P. Merrow

St. Ann’s is welcoming the Reverend Andrew Merrow as the visiting Junior Chaplain for our 2026 season. Andrew joins us after recently retiring as rector of Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church, Arlington, VA, where he served for 40 years, from 1985 to 2025. Saint Mary’s grew considerably during his tenure into one of the larger Episcopal parishes in the Washington metropolitan area with over 1,200 members comprised of many younger families and children. Saint Mary’s commits 25% of its income to outreach ministries before setting its own internal budget. This has allowed the parish to help establish the largest Spanish-speaking congregation in the Diocese, to be part of building St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Renk, South Sudan, and to support parishes in Tanzania and Honduras. Andrew taught Liturgics at Virginia Theological Seminary for more than 20 years, later serving on the Board of Trustees. He has served/chaired on the boards of numerous charitable and church organizations, receiving the Torch Award for Ethical Leadership from the Leadership Center of Arlington. The son of an Episcopal priest, Andrew grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, and spent his summers in Lancaster, New Hampshire. After receiving his B.A. in English from the University of Vermont, he worked on Capitol Hill for 2 years before entering Virginia Theological Seminary and receiving a Master of Divinity in 1981. He has been happily married to Cameron for almost 20 years and is blessed with 2 children, 4 stepchildren, and 8 grandchildren.

Past St. Ann’s Chaplains

St. Ann’s has been fortunate to have eminent leaders serve as Chaplain. The very first was The Rev. George J. Prescott.

The Rev. Charles L. Short served from 1896-1901. During the 1920s, The Rt. Rev. John P. Tyler, Bishop of North Dakota, shared services with The Rt. Rev. Benjamin Brewster, Bishop of Maine, and The Rev. Dr. Percy E. Edrop.

The Very Rev. Chester Emerson, Dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, OH, served St. Ann’s from 1942 – 1962. The Rev. Dr. Laman Bruner from Albany, NY enjoyed the longest tenure at St. Ann’s; he served from 1963 – 1989.

In 1985, Fr. Bruner began to share services with The Rt. Rev. John Maury Allin, 23^rd Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Bishop Allin was then Chaplain-in-Charge until 1995.

In 1993, The Very Rev. M.L. Agnew, Dean of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Shreveport, LA began sharing services with Bishop Allin. He became Chaplain-in-Charge when Bishop Allin retired in 1995.

In 2002, The Rev. Dr. Peter G. Cheney began sharing services with Dean Agnew, and continued to do that until 2015 when he became the sole Chaplain at St. Ann’s.

In 2020, The Rev. Dr. Luis León began to share services with Fr. Cheney. They did that until Fr. Cheney retired in August, 2022.

In 2023, Geoffrey Michael St. John Hoare began to share services with The Rev. Dr. Luis León. They did that until The Rev. Dr. León retired in August, 2025.