On Friday, August 1, 2025, St. Paul’s announced The Rev’d T.J. Freeman as our seventeenth Rector. T.J.’s first service at St. Paul’s was Kick-Off Sunday, September 7, 2025.
After spending more than five years in the US Army running away from his call to ministry, T.J. came home to Indiana to discern a call to the priesthood in the Diocese of Indianapolis. He attended seminary in Austin, Texas, at the Seminary of the Southwest, and served as Curate and Associate Rector at Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh, PA. In July of 2017, T.J. became the nineteenth rector of Trinity Episcopal Church. During his rectorship, Trinity experienced steady growth in membership and involvement, becoming a parish not only in downtown, but of downtown—a parish at the heart of its community.
He has served the Episcopal Church in ecumenical and interreligious ministries, the Diocese of Northern Indiana as a Deputy to General Convention, Area Dean, President of the Standing Committee, a member of the Becoming Beloved Community commission, and in the local community as a founding member of the burgeoning Fort Wayne-Area Interfaith Cooperative, and a member of the city commission to honor the 1963 visit of Dr. King. This resulted in a beautiful sculpture being installed near the auditorium where Dr. King spoke.
In 2024, he began a Doctor of Ministry program at Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York. T.J. believes strongly that, “The Church, if it is to be the Church, must be the revelation of that divine Love which God poured into our hearts. Without love, nothing is valid in the Church because nothing is possible. Love alone creates and transforms.” – Alexander Schmemann.
He also currently serves as Assistant Superior of the Sodality of Mary, Mother of Priests (SMMS), an inclusive, international fellowship of Anglican clergy committed to prayer, study, and holiness.
T.J. and his wife of 15 years, Annie, have two school age children and a golden retriever named Lucy. In his free time, he loves being out of doors, hiking, taking pictures with his 35mm camera, backpacking, occasionally painting with watercolors, riding his bike, and going to the theatre.