The Reverend Canon Spencer Reece

St. Paul's welcomed The Rev. Spencer Reece in December 2022 to serve as Vicar alongside The Rt. Rev. W. Nicholas Knisely, the 13th Bishop of R.I., who was serving as Interim Priest.  Fr. Spencer accepted the call in January 2024 to be the permanent rector of St. Paul’s and was installed on May 8, 2024 by Bishop Knisely in what the Bishop described as “the most joyful institution of a rector he had ever seen.”

Fr. Spencer has returned to his New England roots after a long journey.  Born in Hartford, Connecticut, he grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He graduated from Wesleyan College where he majored in English Literature and studied “verse-writing” with Annie Dillard.  Father Spencer went on to York University in the United Kingdom and studied the poetry of George Herbert, then Harvard Divinity to earn a degree in Theology.  He then worked for Brooks Brothers for 12 years in sales and management.  

An internationally acclaimed poet, Guggenheim Fellow, long-list nominee for the National Book Award, Reece’s first manuscript, The Clerk’s Tale, was selected by Nobel Laureate Louise Glück for the Bakeless Prize, a prestigious award for a first book of poetry.  

Father Spencer returned to seminary at Berkeley, Yale, in mid-life and was ordained to the priesthood in Madrid, Spain, on October 2, 2011. He was subsequently awarded a Fulbright to teach poetry at Our Little Roses in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where he lived and worked with the abandoned girls at the orphanage. The work was made into an award-winning film, Voices Beyond the Wall: 12 Love Poems from the Murder Capital of the World. 

He then moved to Madrid and assisted the Episcopal Bishop of Spain for a decade. During this time, he also created an international author series called The Unamuno Author Series. His work and life there were almost entirely in Spanish. In 2020, he was called to be the interim priest-in-charge in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, a bilingual parish.

He remains an active author, having published three additional books and edited one. His third book of poems, Acts, was published in May 2024. The following year, in May 2025, he was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters biennial Updike Award and received a $20,000 prize “for a writer whose contributions to American literature have demonstrated consistent excellence.”

Father Spencer loves the words of Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-1881): “Life is short, be swift to love, and make haste to be kind.”

His dream, prayer, and ultimate goal for his time with St. Paul’s is to continue the ongoing work of the parish in spreading Jesus’ radical love. “Let kindness be our legacy,” he said.