Our new Rector, The Rev. Doug Folsom, was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1995 in the Diocese of San Joaquin

 

Born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, Doug spent most of his childhood growing up in Boxford, Massachusetts and later in East Orleans located on Cape Cod.  Following high school, Doug studied acting at New York University and later went on to study under Lee Strasberg.  He spent 12 years in New York City and acted in feature films and television.

 

Doug gave his life to Christ in 1984.  A few years later, Doug read Catherine Marshall’s book, "A Man Called Peter" and felt a call to the ordained ministry.  The Rev. Martyn Minns recommended him for ordination into the priesthood.  Eventually he attended seminary and in 1995 he received a Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry.  He served as Vicar of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Tracy, California and subsequently returned to New York City to serve as Clergy Assistant and eventually Priest-In-Charge at All Angels’ Episcopal Church.

 

During a time "between jobs" Doug returned to Cape Cod and worked as a landscaper, while freelancing as a preacher and teacher.   He was asked to preach at the Denver Broncos Chapel Service and taught courses at historic Park Street Congregational Church in Boston.

 

In December of 2000, Doug moved to Los Angeles and started working as the Director of Adult Discipleship at Bel Air Presbyterian Church and leading the Alpha Program. 

 

After his one-year contract ended at Bel Air, Doug was asked to become the Los Angeles Chaplain for Media Fellowship International at Los Angeles Center Studios. He became the first chaplain in the history of Hollywood with an office on a motion picture studio lot!

 

Later, Doug was the assisting priest at St. David’s Anglican Church in North Hollywood, CA.  and served as a chaplain at  Providence St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank CA.  Doug started attending St. Luke’s of the Mountains Anglican Church in La Crescenta, CA in November 2004 and became an affiliated priest at St. Luke’s shortly thereafter. 

 

During this time, Doug continued teaching for Media Fellowship International and  taught two 12-week “Alpha In The Workplace” courses for employees at Walt Disney Studios. 

 

Since 2006, Doug has served on the leadership team as chaplain for Premise which is a prayer support ministry for Christian writers, directors, and producers in the entertainment industry.    

 

On the side, Doug likes to produce short films which he sees as part of his ministry.   His recent short films, Unbound (2008), Mirage (2007), and I Believe (2006) were nominated for Best Film at the 168 Hour Film Festival.  I Believe also won Best Short Film at The Moondance International Film Festival and was an Official Selection at the Santa Fe Film Festival in New Mexico.   He was also nominated for Best Actor at the 168 Hour Film Festival in 2006. 

 

 

 

Doug’s son, Matt, is 25 and majoring in Computer Science at UC Santa Cruz.  Doug’s parents are both artists and live on Cape Cod, MA.  His sister and brother are also artists and they live in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Cape Cod respectively. 

 

Besides loving the arts, Doug is a sports enthusiast.   He likes to play baseball, football, ice hockey, tennis, skiing (intermediate after a lot of practice), hiking and working out at the gym.  His favorie teams are the Green Bay Packers, New York Yankees, Boston Celtics, and Boston Bruins.  And yes he is praying for Brett Favre to come out of retirementJ

 

 

Renee Cutiongco

 

Doug’s fiancé, Renee Cutiongco, was born in the Philippines, in a river town called Marikina, which is in the eastern part of Metro Manila.  She is the youngest in a brood of five children and her parents were both educators.  All her siblings are professionals in diverse fields such as engineering, medicine and geology.  They are all married now - one is living with his family in Connecticut, another in Singapore and two are in the Philippines. 

 

Renee finished her undergraduate psychology degree at the premier state university, the University of the Philippines.  After graduation, she worked as a preschool teacher for a year and then applied to teach an undergraduate course at her Alma Mater.  While teaching, she worked on a Master of Arts in Psychology degree, which she eventually finished in 1998.  She worked as a staff psychologist at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center for five years, performing neuropsychological evaluations of children with various disabilities.

 

In September 2003, Renee came to the United States for the first time to pursue her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary, the pioneer in integrating Psychology and Christianity.   Although she has enjoyed her stay at Fuller, she can’t wait to graduate and move on.  She expects to graduate in June 2009.

 

Renee has not had much time to pursue anything outside of graduate studies in the past few years, but in her pre-grad school days she enjoyed traveling, reading, watching movies and getting a full night’s sleep.  She is looking forward to experiencing a white Christmas and learning to ski down the slopes of Park City.