dorsey [dot] mcconnell [at] redeemerchestnuthill [dot] org
The Reverend Dorsey McConnell has been Rector of Church of the Redeemer in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, since September 2004.
Born in 1953, Dorsey grew up in a military family and graduated from Yale College in 1975 (B.A. cum laude). Following a Fulbright Scholarship in Paris, France, he worked as a polo groom in California, wrangler in Argentina, actor and news editor. In 1978 he moved to New York, married Elizabeth (Betsy) Marsden in 1980, attended the General Theological Seminary (M.Div. cum laude) and was ordained to the priesthood in 1983.
He served parishes in New York City and in the Seattle area before coming to the Redeemer, was Chaplain of the Episcopal Church at Yale from 1985 to 1989, and Chaplain to the Saint George Association, Local #3, I.B.E.W., from 1981 to 1995. His wife Betsy is a licensed clinical social worker in private practice. They have one son, Evan Winter McConnell, who attends Saint Lawrence University.
From 1999 to 2002, Dorsey helped found and lead the New Commandment Task Force, a national reconciliation effort within the Episcopal Church, bringing together laity and clergy, liberal and conservative, to see themselves and each other as members of the one Body of Christ. He has served on various committees and commissions in four dioceses, and twice at General Convention (deputy in 2000, alternate in 2003). After Hurricane Katrina, Dorsey co-led several parish and diocesan mission trips to the Gulf Coast. Locally, he has strengthened mission partnerships in the urban neighborhoods of Roxbury and the South End.
Since 2007, Dorsey has helped build Pilgrim Africa, an indigenous multi-denominational Christian evangelism, relief and development organization centered in the northeastern Teso region of Uganda with initiatives in education, sustainable agriculture, and public health, where he has taught, preached, led pastors' conferences and brokered mission partnerships.
He teaches regularly at Harvard Law School on Christian faith and legal practice, and has led retreats and conferences for dioceses, parishes, laity and clergy around the US.
In his leisure time, he enjoys cooking, reading, kayaking, snowboarding with his son, Nordic skiing, hiking and fishing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
For Dorsey’s sermon archive, click here.