Our Leadership

Fr. Nick grew up in Augusta, Georgia, where he embraced Our Lord and the Faith at an early age through the example of godly parents and devout Catholic educators.

Following graduation from Georgia Military College and the regional police academy with a degree in Criminal Justice, Fr. Nick worked for the Augusta Police/Richmond County Sheriff’s Office as a street officer, training officer, and detective in the Vice and Narcotics division.

Father would eventually leave law enforcement to fulfill a life-long call to ministry in the Roman Catholic Church graduating Cum Laude from Loyola University in Chicago with an MA in Theology and The Catholic University of America (John Paul II Institute) with an STL in Theology of the Family with additional coursework taken at Mount Saint Mary’s, Emmitsburg.

Ultimately deciding not to remain in the Roman Church and after much prayer and discernment, Fr. Nick joined the Anglican Catholic Church where he was ordained a deacon and later priest by The Most Rev. Mark Haverland in 1999.

While in the Anglican continuum, Fr. Nick served as rector of St. Bartholomew’s, New Bern, NC, St. Andrew & St. Margaret of Scotland, Alexandria, Va., and St. Stephen’s Pro-Cathedral in Athens, Georgia, where he served as Dean and Archdeacon for The Diocese of the South (ACC). Father also served as a chaplain to the Athens-Clarke Police Department.

Father is a member of The Society of the Holy Cross (SSC), a fraternity of Anglo- Catholic priests from around the world, and currently serves as Provincial Secretary of the Our Lady of Sorrows Province.

Father Nick is a lover of All Creatures Great and Small and enjoys spending time with his elderly Terriers, “Popsicle” and “Matilda” Hobbies include swimming, travel, local history, target shooting, and working in the yard.

Fr. Nick accepted a call as rector of Christ Church in January of 2024 and was made canonically resident in the diocese by Bishop Ryan Reed in March 2024.

Brandi grew up in the fourth most populous city in America: Houston, TX. After high school, she moved to Waco to attend Baylor University majoring in Special Education. While at Baylor as an undergraduate, she realized how much spiritual formation she received during her childhood catechesis in both the Episcopal and Lutheran church.

Waco grew on her and she and her husband put down roots, adding seven children along the way. After 18 years at a non-denominational church, her family felt a pull to something different. They visited Christ Church in August of 2016 and she immediately felt at home, once again worshipping with the liturgy almost identical to what she grew up with.

Brandi recently finished her Masters of Science in Eduction degree in Educational Psychology in order to use Applied Behavior Analysis to teach children with disabilities. She loves working with children, and takes joy in the fact that even little ones can drink deeply from the wells of theological truth, and that we don’t need to resort to entertaining children in order to keep their attention.

Brandi lives in the peaceful countryside just north of Waco with her husband, Eric, seven children, and roughly 40 chickens.

Jeff’s earliest memories are of making music with family.  They would sing for hours when they took trips, and sing at home too. His experience of the love and goodness of God was shaped by that singing, and by singing in choirs.  Mrs. Gattis and Mrs. Bunch, his early piano teachers, differed vastly.  On the one hand Mrs. Gattis fostered his ability to play music by ear. On the other hand, Mrs. Bunch had a zero-tolerance policy for ear-playing.  Jeff began playing the classical guitar as a freshman in high school, studying under Oscar Valdez. Guitar became his chief passion, the object of hours of concentration every day.  To his perfectionistic mind, mistakes in a piano recital meant that the piano could never be his primary instrument.

Although he planned to study jazz at the University of North Texas, to his own surprise he instead followed his older siblings to Baylor. There was no classical guitar major at Baylor, and so he decided not to major in music, but he kept playing the piano in worship services, and playing the guitar at every opportunity.

The notion of learning and teaching the history and literature of the Greek and Roman worlds (now his day job) captured his imagination. It was his ‘Roman Empire’, one might say. Before he knew it, he was carried away in the torrent of graduate studies. He kept making music along the way, however, and sometimes singing.

As Director of Music, Jeff’s hope is that every person at Christ Church will sing heartfully to the Lord, and not just on Sunday, but during the week too.  He has been helping to lead musical worship at Christ Church since its beginnings.  His greatest earthly treasures are his wife Holly and his two daughters, Margot and Stella.