Canon and Rector Father Spencer Reece of St. Paul’s Wickford, Rhode Island, graduated from Wesleyan University where he majored in English Literature and studied “verse-writing” with Annie Dillard. Reece went on to York University in the United Kingdom and studied the poetry of George Herbert, then Harvard Divinity to earn a degree in Theology. He then worked for Brooks Brothers for 12 years in sales and management. A Guggenheim Fellow, long-list nominee for the National Book Award, Reece’s first manuscript, The Clerk’s Tale, was selected by Nobel Laureate Louise Glück. Father Spencer returned to seminary at Berkeley, Yale, in mid-life and was ordained to the priesthood in Madrid, Spain, on October 2nd of 2011. He was awarded a Fulbright to teach poetry at Our Little Roses in San Pedro, Honduras, where he lived and worked with the abandoned girls at the orphanage. The work was made into an award-winning film, Voices Beyond the Wall: 12 Love Poems from the Murder Capital of the World. He moved to Madrid and assisted the Episcopal Bishop of Spain for a decade. During this time he created an author series called The Unamuno Author Series. His third book of poems Acts was published by FSG in May of 2024.