Clergy & Staff

The Rev. Thomas Skillings serves as interim rector while Grace seeks its next permanent rector. His main areas of responsibility are working with the leadership of the parish clarifying the values and mission of Grace (in preparation for the rector search), providing pastoral support to the various ministries of the parish, overseeing the worship life of the church and offering pastoral care to members of the parish.

Thomas is a newcomer to the St. Louis region, having spent the rest of his life in the San Francisco Bay area. He has a passion for inviting people and groups of people into conversations about things that matter, and connecting people with a life giving experience of the divine. He loves to travel, with places of nature feeding his soul the most. He lives in the city of St. Louis with his wife and their Australian Kelpie. His son is finishing up his final year at Mizzou! MIZ!

David Waters serves as Grace’s Pastoral Assistant for Faith Formation, Pastoral Care, and Community Outreach. He works with parish leaders to develop and implement formation programs for our children, youth, and adults; supports Grace’s Prayer Team and lay chaplains in providing spiritual and pastoral care for our community; and assists the Outreach Committee in identifying the best ways to put our time, talent, and treasure to use for our neighbors in need.

David grew up in New York, Texas, and Illinois before a career in the U.S. Navy took him to assignments in Japan and Seattle while serving at sea in the Western Pacific. After leaving the Navy in 2013, he completed a B.A. in English, cum laude, at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and earned a Master of Divinity as a Swartz Scholar in Religion, Literature, and Culture at Harvard Divinity School.

While at HDS, David co-founded the annual Black Religion, Spirituality, and Culture Conference, now in its seventh year, and was also awarded a Think Write Publish Fellowship funded by the John Templeton Foundation to explore the resonances between science and religion. He has served various communities as a lay leader, faith formation educator, and chaplain intern for LGBTQ outreach. Before coming to Grace in 2023, David concluded a four-year ministry as Minister for Education at King’s Chapel in Boston, MA.

When not reading or writing, David enjoys good eating, distance running, volunteering, and traveling. He and his wife, Mandi, are basking in the glow of newly-married life with their impossibly cute kitten, Fig. They are also pleased to have found their way to Grace Church, mere blocks from where Mandi grew up in Kirkwood! David is enormously grateful for the warmth and welcome of the Grace Church community—and for the opportunity to be in their midst as one who serves.

Phillip has served Grace Church as Organist & Choir Master since 1992. During his tenure he has successfully developed choirs for children in The Royal School of Church Music tradition. In 1998 he founded the first RSCM Training Course west of the Mississippi and was the Executive Director for 15 years.

Brunswick is a native of Kirkwood, Missouri, and holds a Performance Certificate from the St. Louis Conservatory and School of the Arts. In addition, he is a graduate from Fontbonne University with a BM degree in Organ Performance.