JOLIET – The Rev. Richard Lundgren will be installed as rector of St. Edward’s and Christ Episcopal Church to be held June 14.

From his first Communion in the Roman Catholic faith at St. Charles at age 7, Lundgren felt called to the priesthood. His grandmother was a devout Catholic, and his uncle, a Catholic missionary priest in Africa, showed him “the ropes” of saying Mass.

Lundgren aspired to be an altar boy, but was barred early on because he did not attend Catholic School. He persisted, and finally the parish associate priest promised that if Lundgren could recruit a few other Catholic boys from the public school for the task, he would train them as a group. Lundgren did that, and he became an altar boy.

During his junior year of high school, Lundgren looked into taking religious orders as opposed to being a parish priest. He attended a three-day retreat at Villanova, which cemented his desire in that direction.

He attended the pre-novitiate program at Villanova with a major in philosophy, followed by one year in novitiate at a seminary in Racine, Wisconsin. He then attended Catholic Theological University at Hyde Park.

While there, Lundgren felt the need to learn more of the world and how to live in it. He found a calling as director of liturgy at a parish in Aurora. Parishioners suggested he become a priest. Soon thereafter, three priests approached him for the renovation of a church building. That began a second career of designing church interiors for liturgical emphasis.

Lundgren was ordained a deacon, and ultimately a priest, in 1996 at St. Raymond’s Cathedral. He served as associate at St. Thomas the Apostle in Naperville, St. Anthony’s in Frankfort and St. Isaac in Hinsdale.

During that time, Lundgren began to re-think the way he wanted to live his priesthood. He investigated the Episcopal Church with visits to the Episcopal Diocese in Chicago and the Church of St. Paul the Redeemer in Hyde Park.

He was received into the Episcopal Church on Easter Sunday 2004. He studied at Seabury Western Seminary in Evanston, followed by his transfer of orders from the Roman Catholic to the Episcopal Church.

The Rev. Kathryn White, rector at St. Edward's and Christ at the time, was on Lundgren's formation committee. Lundgren was ordained a full priest in 2007, and was asked to stay at St. Edward's and Christ in anticipation of parish growth and the addition of a second campus near Yorkville.

Lundgren stayed, and with the retirement of White at the end of 2016, Diocesan permission was given to consider Lundgren as the parish's new rector, a rather unusual step for the Episcopal Church.

His first service as full rector was on March 1.

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IF YOU GO

WHAT: Installation of Rev. Richard Lundgren as rector at St. Edward and Christ Episcopal Church

WHEN: 7 p.m. June 14

WHERE: St. Edward campus, 206 N. Midland Ave., Joliet

ETC: Bishop Jeffrey Lee will preside

CONTACT: 815-725-6800 or visit stedwardandchrist.net.