The Reverend Douglas J. Reans
Interim Rector
The Rev. Douglas J. Reans has been called to become the Interim Rector of St. Peter's Church, Spotswood, NJ. Fr. Reans grew up in Minnesota and graduated from the University of Minnesota. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Colgate Rochester Divinity School/Bexley Hall in Rochester, NY. He has served parishes in Minnesota, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and many parishes as an Interim Priest in New Jersey. He has served 10 parishes as Interim Priest in the Diocese of Newark and the Diocese of New Jersey. Among the churches that he was interim for were Grace Church, Plainfield; St. Paul's Church, Bound Brook; Trinity Church, Cranford; and St. Peter's Church, Freehold.
For eight years he lived in the Washington, D.C. area and served as an interim priest in the Diocese of Washington and then as Executive Director of the Reston Interfaith Housing Corporation where he developed programs and housing for low and moderate income families and also became CEO of the community action agency for the western part of Fairfax County, VA. During that time he was president of the Reston ministerium and active in the Reston community where he lived for five years.
After moving to New Jersey in 1983 he was Interim Rector of Christ Church in Hackensack, NJ and then vicar of St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church in Hackensack and Episcopal Missioner to the Meadowlands for six years. In 1990 he transferred to the Diocese of New Jersey from the Diocese of Newark and began to do full time Interim work in the diocese for the next six years. During that time he served as Interim Rector for four different parishes in the northern part of the Diocese.
He then had an assignment for seven years as Chaplain and Director of Pastoral Services for the Evergreens Continuing Care Retirement Center in Moorestown, New Jersey which was founded by the Episcopal Diocese. For the past five years he was Rector of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Bridgeton, NJ. He and his wife Mary each have two children from a previous marriage, two boys who are graduated from college and working and two girls who are sophomores in college, one at Rutgers in New Brunswick and one at Bloomsberg University in Bloomsberg, PA. With his wife Mary and dog Jackie he currently resides in Cinnaminson, New Jersey.