Welcome to Fr. Merrill Wade!

On behalf of the vestry of All Saints’ Episcopal Church, I am extremely pleased to announce the appointment of The Rev. Merrill Wade as our Part-Time Interim Rector beginning December 1, 2025. On Sunday afternoon, November 9, vestry members present voted unanimously to invite Fr. Wade to be our Interim. We are thankful he will jump into the middle of life at All Saints’ soon, bringing an enormous amount of experience, wisdom, and love for the Episcopal Church with him.

The Search Committee continues to do their work; they are diligently interviewing candidates to be the 7th Rector of All Saints’. Fr. Wade will be with us until Easter Sunday, April 5, or until we call a new rector. In the meantime, we have the wonderful opportunity to have Fr. Wade preach, teach, and offer friendship and pastoral care to parishioners. He will work alongside the vestry, the staff, and all our volunteers to ensure our ministries thrive as we continue to articulate a compelling vision for the future.

Fr. Wade is a retired Episcopal priest living in Austin. He was raised on Air Force bases in Florida, Morocco, and Kansas. His family settled in Fort Worth (Carswell AFB) in the mid-1960s. Merrill graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1976, and for the next nine years he worked in the oil and gas industry, the last six years as a petroleum landman in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1986 he made a career change, and after having attended and graduated from General Theological Seminary in New York City, he was ordained an Episcopal deacon in 1989 and priest in 1990. Merrill served three congregations in Mississippi (Vicksburg, Long Beach, and Meridian) over the next 13 years.

In 2002, he and his wife Crystal and their two young children were called to Austin, where Fr. Wade served as the Rector of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church for 17 years, retiring in the Fall of 2019.

A music lover, Fr. Wade and St. Matthew’s launched a singer-songwriter series in Austin called the Soul of a Musician Series in 2013. The Soul Series was affectionately focused on the heart and soul of the musicians, seeking to honor their creativity and vocation. Merrill has spoken on music topics at the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference four times. In the last years of his active ministry, he composed a musical setting of the Holy Eucharist.

Fr. Wade is a Diocesan “Coach” in support of clergy and lay leaders. Since his retirement, he has served multiple terms of service:

• St. George’s, Austin: (4 months) - Priest in Charge

• All Saints, Austin: (6 months) - Priest in Charge

• St. Christopher’s, Austin: (4 months) -Priest in Charge

• Epiphany, Calvert, Texas: (Monthly service since May 2021) - regular supply

• St. James. LaGrange, Texas: (25 Sundays over 3 years) - regular supply

• Holy Trinity Episcopal Church Oaxaca City, Mexico: (3 Sundays) - celebrant and preacher

• Church of the Transfiguration Jackson Hole, Wyoming: (4 Sundays) - celebrant and preacher

Please join me in welcoming Fr. Wade to All Saints’ Episcopal Church. Together with our parish family we will help build a vital and vibrant Episcopal community of faith in Fort Worth. We thank Fr. Wade for saying yes!

Faithfully,

Stephanie Burk