Leadership

A cradle Episcopalian, Victor Thomas was born and reared in the San Francisco Bay Area. Following high school, he enlisted in the Army Reserves and attended Heald Institute of Technology. After working for several years as an electronics technician in the Silicon Valley and attending college at night and on weekends, Fr. Thomas completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at San Francisco’s New College of California in May 1994. The following semester, he entered the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, where he obtained his Master of Divinity degree. He won the Bishop Mallard Preaching Prize—named in honor of a former Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California-—in 1997.

Shortly after graduation, he was ordained a deacon and relocated to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for his first assignment as Associate Rector of St. James’ Parish. He was ordained a priest in May 1998. While in Lancaster, he led youth and adults on four mission trips to Mexico, Honduras, Canada and South Dakota. He served as Chair of the Urban League of Lancaster from 1999 to 2001. He became Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Executive Director of the St. Barnabas Center for Ministry in September 2002, where he served through 2008. In 2006, he was elected as a deputy to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Fr. Thomas served as the Chair of the Bishop’s Commission on Racism for the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania.

On January 1, 2009, he began his new ministry as Rector of St. James’ Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas. Victor Thomas is married to the former Nicole Hudson and they are the parents of three children: Brianna, Bryce and Brielle.