Vestry Bios

Joan Bredthauer

My first association with St. Paul's was in the early 1990s, as maid of honor for a friend who had planned to be married by Father Cullen in the church.  This was the year of the fire, and we wound up having the service at Christ Church and the Holy Family, with Father Cullen officiating.

I don't remember when my husband David and I began attending on a regular basis. Our twin daughters were baptized on September 21, 2001 here, and sometime after they had grown a bit, we became more official members. (I was a bit of a nervous parent and was overly anxious about babies crying in the church, which I regret now.)

I served as Sunday School Superintendent for several years in the 2000s, and enjoyed working with the youth of the parish, who are now all grown!  I still work with children indirectly as I am the Parent Coordinator of Public School 58, right down the street.  I advise parents on many subjects, including enrollment, curricula, child development and health issues.  I write a news blast to parents three times a week, and am webmaster of the school site.  

I have been a member of the St. Paul's Choir for many years, which has become central to my personal worship.  I am also a soprano in Vince Peterson's Choral Chameleon chorus.

I serve on the St Paul's Hospitality Committee.

I was raised in the Episcopal Church and attended Church of the Resurrection in Kew Gardens Queens from the age of 4. David and I were married there in 1993.  

I give thanks for the community of St. Paul's and look forward to an opportunity to work together with the members of St. Paul's vestry in support of our beautiful church and our congregation.

Brad Winter

Brad first attended St. Paul’s in the spring of 2002 with his future wife, Tracy, who introduced him to the church that would soon become a new spiritual home. Sixteen years later, St. Paul’s is also the spiritual home to their three wonderful children: Ruby (14), Penelope (12), and Luke (8).

A longtime member of both the Lectors Guild and Acolytes Guild, and formerly head of the latter, Brad has been an active member of the parish all along. He has a deeply vested interest in the search for a new rector, and the larger soul-searching that St. Paul’s has recently undertaken in the process.

A writer/producer in television, Brad is also a published poet and onetime blogger. In addition to the rector search, he is keenly interested in helping the St. Paul’s community bring its singular kinship with the arts more and more to the fore.

Brad would be honored to broaden his role in St. Paul’s by serving on the Vestry.

Nancy Webster

Nancy Webster is Executive Director of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, which produces diverse and innovative programming for park visitors and cultivates volunteer and philanthropic support of this special place on the Brooklyn waterfront. As the chief executive since 2009, Nancy has led the Conservancy through a period of significant growth, including a three-fold growth in the organization’s financial resources and an eight-fold increase in its programmatic support of Brooklyn Bridge Park. In 2018, the Conservancy’s free public events and activities served over 130,000 park visitors.

A North Carolina native, Nancy lives on Carroll Street with her wife Nell, who served as a curate and an assisting priest at St. Paul's from 2014-2015. Nancy and Nell have three teenage children: Coley, Ward, and Nora. 

A frequent visitor to the parish over several years, Nancy has been regularly attending St. Paul's since 2016. Nancy is an outdoor enthusiast and an avid angler and sailor.

Anne Hallmark

The St. Paul’s community has been a vital part of my life since 1982, shortly after Rufus and I moved to New York.  In those years, St. Paul’s was a tiny band of stalwart worshippers led by Father Sam Cross, who had persuaded the diocese not to close the church and sell it for condominiums.  It was a time of continuous crisis, never enough money, but there was a remarkable sense of common purpose.  We were then not a self-sufficient parish.  I served during that time on the Bishop’s Committee, the equivalent of a Vestry.  It was a proud day when St. Paul’s became an independent parish, able to support itself and have its priest be named rector.  I was part of the group to draft our parish’s by-laws.

Our daughter Caroline arrived in 1983 and was welcomed as the first new baby of the revitalized parish.  Ned arrived in 1986.  St. Paul’s has always been part of their lives.

Then came the horror of the fire, in 1987, and its long aftermath, during which time Father Cullen arrived, and a new revitalization began.  Many years later we are in transition again, ably led by Father Wallace as interim, in a much more flourishing and stable situation. In my years at St. Paul’s, I have been Sunday School superintendent, served on and am currently heading the lectors’guild, served on and headed the hospitality guild, served as Vestry member and as Warden, headed the annual Christmas children’s book drive, and been almost continuously involved in music at St. Paul’s until recently, in the choir and as part of a sometime music committee.

This parish has been profoundly important to me, helping me grow spiritually in ways I could not have imagined, supporting me and my family in times of joy and sorrow, providing a powerful antidote to the often toxic secular world.  That it is now a flourishing place—whose members and diversity continue to grow—is a source of joy and wonder to us “old timers.” Our beautiful buildings are essentially sound (though always in need of repair!); our liturgy inspiring in its tradition and relevance; our music solid and diverse; our Christian education important to children and adults alike.  Future generations will be able to worship here after all.

My career was as a professor of musicology at New England Conservatory (commuting weekly to Boston), specializing in early music and women’s studies.  Rufus and I are both now retired, enjoying life together in one city.

It would be an honor to serve as junior warden at St. Paul’s, an honor to serve with Senior Warden Sandy Miller and an able and congenial Vestry.  The solidity of their commitment to St. Paul’s—in ways spiritual and material—is an inspiration to me.  Some central goals that I continue to have are: to help the parish however I am able in its transition to a new rector; to support even more the volunteers who are the backbone of this community; to work to draw new members into St. Paul’s; to support and advocate for our strong music program; to further our goals in outreach, in areas close to home and also far away.