Leadership
Clergy and Staff
-
The Rev. Mark Furlow
Interim Rector
Originally from Lexington, Kentucky, Mark has been an ordained priest for 18 years. During that time, he has ministered in four dioceses including Virginia, Lexington (KY), Southwestern Virginia, and Maine inhabiting a wide variety of roles including clergy resident, rector, canon missioner, and canon to the ordinary. He currently serves in a consultative capacity as Canon for Ministry Development in the Diocese of Maine focused on special projects that directly support the Bishop of Maine. Over the years, Rev. Furlow has maintained a second career as a theatre production manager, lighting designer, and stage carpenter. His love of the Church and dramatic arts have allowed him the unique opportunity to serve as worship coordinator for The Episcopal Church’s General Convention and for a variety of Episcopal Revivals lead by Presiding Bishop Curry.
Rev. Furlow’s spouse, Siobhan Byrns, is a fine arts photographer and university librarian. They are blessed with two daughters, Aoife and Frances. Please click here for brief introductory remarks from Mark.
-
Mike Schmidt
Music Minister
Mike is thrilled to be joining the staff at St. Michaels. A native of Pennsylvania, Mike joined the faculty of Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA as Director of Choral Music in 2022. Mike began his music career as church musician at at the age of 12 and has served as Minister of Music and Organist at Christ Lutheran Church (Hellertown, PA) St. Paul Lutheran Church (East Windsor, NJ), and St. John Lutheran Church (Mamaroneck, NY). Prior to joining the Episcopal faculty, he was the Director of Choral Activities at Scarsdale High School (Scarsdale, NY) and Voorhees High School (Glen Gardner, NJ). Mike taught on the voice faculty of Eastern Illinois University and served as the interim director of the University of Illinois Varsity Men’s Glee Club. In addition to his work in church music and choral music education, Mike is the Past-President of the New Jersey American Choral Directors Association and has served on multiple conference committees for the American Choral Directors Association – Eastern Division. Mike has presented interest sessions on choral music and choral music education for the College Music Society, New Jersey American Choral Directors Association, and the New York Music Educators Association, and multiple universities. He is currently a D.M.A. candidate at the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign. His proposed dissertation focuses on secular choral music of Hugo Distler.
-
Karen Ruff
Children and Families Minister
Vestry
-
Jim Dinan
Senior Warden
Jim is a native Arlingtonian and a recovering (retired) attorney. Jim, Monica and their 3 children started attending St Michaels a little over two decades ago, and find it to be a loving and caring environment. The Dinan’s have participated in Shrine Mont weekends and summer camps, and are often the way too competitive table at Trivia nights. The kids served as acolytes and the youngest was a member of the vocal and bell choirs. Monica has and does serve the congregation in numerous ways. Now that Jim is retired from the Department of Justice, he thought it was appropriate to augment the time he spends working on his children’s home improvement projects and playing with his 4 grandchildren with an offer to serve the community that has played such a large role in the lives of his family.
-
Todd Trapp
Junior Warden
Todd joined St. Michael’s in 2021 during the pandemic, after relocating back to Arlington by way of Reston. Since his childhood in South Carolina, he has been a member of the Episcopal church while living in five US states—serving as an acolyte, participating in youth group/retreats, coordinating children’s chapel, serving on vestry & committees, and working on Honduras missions. Todd has found that these spiritual experiences wonderfully come back to life and strengthen when worshipping, studying, and serving with St Michael’s parishioners. Todd is currently a member of the Outreach Committee and Buildings & Grounds Committee at St. Michael’s.
Todd is married to Rose, and they enjoy visiting their three adult sons and forever renovating their old/new home on 22nd Road. Todd is a part-time consultant to his former employer, Raytheon, where he was an electrical design engineer, program manager, and business leader—spanning 33 years. He enjoys fellowship with friends, daily meditation, exercising, and volunteering to maintain trails and shelters in the area.
-
Lisa Meacham
Lisa Meacham has been a longtime member of St. Michael’s with a hiatus in the 1990s during a two-year relocation to California. She is also a Program Director at the National Science Foundation, a Federal agency that supports basic scientific research. She enjoys working on programs that offer funding for student internships in the geosciences and that support access to science education for students who are from underserved and disadvantaged communities. Lisa was drawn to St. Michael’s by the welcoming congregation and by the beautiful trees and green space that surround the church. She is honored to serve on the Vestry and hopes to support efforts to enhance existing programs, engage with new communities and maintain and improve the landscape and buildings of the church.
-
Dan Ruff
The Ruffs have been attending St. Michael’s since 2011 and felt at home in this warm and welcoming community from the start. While he always felt like he belonged, Dan finally made it official and became an Episcopalian by being received in 2019.
Dan has served on the Stewardship Committee for the past 5 years and has been the chair for the last 3. He has coordinated the annual blood drives at St. Michael’s for the last 5 years and is thrilled to report that the St. Michael’s drives have collected 217 units of blood since 2018, making the difference between life and death for numerous individuals. Dan has also served on the mowing ministry for the past few summers, helping to keep the lawn looking its best. Previously, Dan served on the Mission and Outreach Committee, the Buildings and Grounds Committee, and was a Rebuilding Together house captain.
In his time in these various roles, it has been driven home time and time again that every single success is due to the wonderful and generous community here at St. Michael’s. He is convinced that as long as we continue to choose to make it so, this little church will have a significant impact in the greater community.
Dan is married to Karen, the Minister for Children and Families, and they have both enjoyed watching their children Isabel and Adam grow up within the St. Michael’s community. They are amazed and more than a little proud to see the adults their children have become.
Dan and the family love to travel, and love the outdoors. Dan was able to scratch that itch for 6 years as an Assistant Scout Master in Adam’s troop, and now he and Karen are once again enjoying traveling to new places together as a couple. Dan works as a trademark paralegal, helping companies and individuals obtain and maintain their trademarks. In his free time, he’s always got some project around the house he’s working on, or something he is tinkering with in the basement.
-
Mary Thorne
Mary grew up in Washington, DC and belonged to several Episcopal churches in the area before discovering the gem that is St. Michaels about 8 years ago. She and her husband Jim were attracted to St. Michael’s by the warm inclusivity of the congregation. She has worked on the annual audit twice, served on the Finance Committee for three years, volunteered at ASPAN (now PathForward) and AFAC, and participated in the Sacred Ground program.
Mary is a Washington, DC tour guide, spending long hours showing busloads of 8thgraders Our Nation’s Capital. When she is not tour guiding she enjoys walking, running, tennis, yoga, and cheering on the Washington Nationals.
-
Demian Perry
Demian Perry was an acolyte at another St. Michael’s Episcopal Church (in Colorado Springs), where he often relied on cues from the Rector and, during one memorable service, lit his own eyebrows on fire. He also regularly attended the services at his Episcopal college in Tennessee, and although he sang loudly, he was never invited to join the choir. Demian first attended Shrine Mont with Christ Church, but soon discovered that the parishioners at St. Michael’s were much better hiking companions. He now lives a few blocks from St. Michael’s with his partner Amy Miller (who keeps his eyebrows trimmed) and their two children, James (14) and Julia (11).
-
Carol Halvorson
Clerk
After the Navy moved the Halvorsons from San Diego to Arlington in 2017, they found themselves at a St. Michael’s 8AM service. Carol and Tom found the congregation to be welcoming, generous and filled with opportunities to grow spiritually, socially and as a community. . They have three adult children who now each live on the west coast, but visits are always being planned. Carol recently retired from full time teaching and is now filling her time with tutoring math, improving her pickleball serve, finally learning the game of golf, and traveling.
Some of the rewarding ways she found to serve at Saint Michal’s include Hospitality, Stewardship Committee, AFAC and helping lead Children’s Worship. Carol is honored to serve on the Vestry and looks forward to connecting with others and supporting efforts to improve programs that make a lasting impact on our lives.
-
Linda Denson
Linda has been a member at St Michael’s since the late 80’s, and considers herself very lucky to be here. Her experiences from the early days of bringing her then-10-year-old son to be the 8:00 am acolyte to finding a way to worship together in the pandemic, makes her glad with confidence in her family’s life here. In earlier years, Linda studied math and computer science at University of Texas Austin during the turbulent late 60’s. Linda married following graduation, and even though their young family moved around, she was able to settle in church, raise two children, and enjoy a career as a systems analyst. She also had several systems analyst positions working on government contracts, then spent 20 years at Navy Federal Credit Union in systems development, navigating change from a 1000 employee credit union to 15,000 employees world wide. Linda retired in 2010 when her first grandchild was born. Dwight Denson, Linda’s husband of 54 years, is a retired naval officer and also a member of St. Michael’s. Their immediate family includes two children and their spouses as well as five grandchildren ages seven to 15, all of whom live locally.
Currently, Linda is enrolled in EfM where participants explore beliefs, traditions, scripture, experiences and spirituality, navigating through discoveries and rekindling faith. Since September when Linda began the third year of the program, she has been reading 3000 years of world and church history that brought Christians to where we are today. Our history informs and inspires that we are a resilient religion, not because we are powerful, but because we are the opposite— who can argue with love? As we are seeing the results of the war in Palestine, the results of natural disasters, and now the government administration change, Linda knows we are facing uncertainty and feeling vulnerable. She is struck by what Christians have done since ancient times in these situations. She believes we’ve got this: Loving mercy, acting justly, walking humbly and gently with God, speaking Love, and asking for Love, following Jesus’ example and teachings, caring for each other and our neighbors, and keeping community in our daily lives as we walk this path.
-
Corey Bassett
Corey Bassett joined St. Michael’s after moving to Arlington with her family in 2021. Finding an active and supportive congregation was a priority when her family arrived, and she was drawn to St. Michael’s by the welcoming multi-generational congregation, especially the growing contingent of young families and children. She loves the dedication to community building, music, events with good food, and service to the greater Arlington community. As an urban forestry researcher and certified arborist, she is continually inspired seeing how members walk in love by not just stewarding our people, but the church’s beautiful trees and landscape. Of St. Michael’s current traditions, her favorites are the annual Shrine Mont retreat, the post-Advent/pre-Christmas holiday carols, the Sharing Faith winter gatherings, and the new Faithful Parenting fellowship nights. Of St. Michael’s soon-to-be traditions, her favorite is likely to be the new, annual, family camping weekend.
-
Beth Addington
My family and I have been attending St. Michael's since 2011. During that time, I've served on the Finance Committee, as Treasurer (including during COVID—that was fun), on the Search Committee that selected Beth Franklin, the Audit Team three times, and I'm currently the Hospitality Chair. As a new member of the Empty Nest Club, I guess it's time for Vestry. Other info: I'm a West Coaster who somehow never made it back there (to be rectified in retirement). I've been a federal contractor since 1999 working mostly geospatial projects. I spend my free time hanging out with friends, knitting, reading, and dreaming about when I will lose the double college tuition payments so that Dave and I can go on fun vacations again.
-
Patrick Dexter
I am retired having worked as the Headquarters Community Relations Advisor, ExxonMobil Public Affairs, for the Exxon Mobil Corporation, in Fairfax, Virginia (December 1999–June 2010). I received both BS and MA degrees in library and information science from the University of Missouri. After graduation, I worked as assistant medical librarian at Georgetown University Medical Center. In 1978, I joined the Gillette Medical Evaluation Laboratories as an information specialist until 1990 and then joined the Mobil Corporation as an information specialist in the Office of the Corporate Secretary. In 1998, I was appointed assistant secretary of Mobil Foundation, Inc.
I attended St. Michael’s from 1984 to 2010. During that time, I served on the Vestry, as Treasurer, and for 20 years as a member of the Stewardship Committee. I taught Sunday School and worked on building & grounds.I moved to Santa Cruz, CA in 2010. During that time, I attended Calvary Episcopal Church. There I served on Vestry, as Treasurer, search committee member, and building & grounds committee.
My wife Martha and I moved back to Arlington and St. Michael’s in 2025. I am currently an usher, lector, greeter, and coffee hour host. Martha and I have two adult children: David and Catherine both baptized and confirmed at St. Michael’s and living in the area.
-
Dawn Stevenson
My family (Michael, Connor, and Shane) and I have been members of St. Michael’s since 2017. My then-infant son, Connor, chose St. Michael’s to be our church by sleeping peacefully through every service and gleefully socializing at coffee hour. Connor is now in 3rd grade and Shane in 1st, and they both like to gleefully socialize during services now. I’m a proud member of Team Timeline, guiding our parish recently through mapping our ministries since the 1940s. I participate in Faithful Parenting discussions, and our family looks forward to attending Shrine Mont each year. I’ve been a government contractor since moving here in 2008, first with USAID and then FAA and National Guard. I love to run, read, cheer proudly at our boys’ soccer games and swim meets, speak French, and play flute in the Falls Church Community Band. I look forward to serving St. Michael’s more in the years ahead!
-
Janet Hansen, Treasurer
Officer of the Vestry