JOHN MEREDITH MILLER, JR.
Grace Church’s Vicar

A native of Pensacola, Florida, John is a graduate of Duke University, the General Theological Seminary, and Bryn Mawr College's School of Social Work and Social Research. He was ordained to the diaconate in 1968 and the priesthood in 1969, and worked in full-time parish ministry for the next 14 years, serving parishes as associate rector, vicar, and rector in New York and Virginia.

In 1984, Father Miller earned a master's degree in clinical social work from Bryn Mawr College. After graduation, he combined parish work in several Diocese of Pennsylvania parishes with a part-time psychotherapy practice, specializing in family and couple counseling, addictions work, and smoking cessation activities with the American Lung Association. He also consulted with Temple University Hospital’s Pulmonary Department on smoking cessation, training pharmaceutical company representatives in the behavioral aspects of smoking addiction and cessation. His private practice was with GKSW/Crystal Group Associates in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania.

In early 1996, he returned to full-time parish work, serving as rector of St. Mark’s Church, Westford, MA 1996-2001, and Christ Church, Roxbury, CT 2001-2008 (where he retired from full-time ministry June 1.) During the Roxbury years, he served the Town as chair of the Council on Aging and the Diocese as instructor in liturgics in the Vocational Deacons’ Training Program. With the approval of Grace Church’s vestry, the Bishop appointed him vicar of Grace Church as of September 1, 2008, on a quarter-time basis. He is normally at the church on Sundays and Wednesdays. In addition to his teaching in the Deacons’ Training Program, John’s diocesan activities include service on the Commission on Ministry’s Committee I-D which assists Bp. Ahrens in choosing candidates for the Vocational Diaconate, and the Transition Committee for the upcoming election and welcome of a new Diocesan Bishop in late 2009 and early 2010.

John's wife, Adele, is a mathematics professor at Central Connecticut State University. Their three grown children are spread across the country in Pennsylvania, California, and Georgia. Mark is a chemist, Michael a molecular biologist, and Anne an actuary. John and Adele live with their dog Leo near the CCSU campus in New Britain.