Rhonda Rubinson

The Rev. Rhonda Joy Rubinson is the current priest-in-charge at the Church of the Intercession in Manhattan. She was born in Brooklyn, NY, and raised in Brooklyn and Fair Lawn, NJ. A Christian of Jewish heritage, Rev. Rhonda was baptized and confirmed by Bishop Paul Moore at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in 1987. She was one of the founding wardens of the Congregation of St. Saviour at the Cathedral in 1992, and was the first to be sponsored by St. Saviour for ordination in 2000. She served as priest-in-charge at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Harlem from 2007-2012; she previously served as assistant priest at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in Manhattan from 2000-2007. She holds a B.A. from Barnard College, and M.A. degrees from the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Union Theological Seminary. A lighting designer and theatrical production manager by trade, she worked as the Technical Director of the Theater and Dance Departments at Barnard College for 28 years, and has designed lights at Lincoln Center and many venues in NYC and worldwide, for dance and symphonic productions. She also was the set and lighting designer for Suzanne Vega’s World Tour 1987, and while at Barnard directed John Cage in an original project of their own devising, The Bus to Stockport and Other Stories. She also is a US Patent Holder for an invention addressing indoor air quality. Mtr. Rhonda gives thanks to God for surviving stage 4 breast cancer, and has published Lessons of the Spirit: A Christian Spiritual Companion for Your Breast Cancer Journey to help others do the same; the same book is now available in Spanish as Lecciones de el Espiritu. She is also the author of Steroid Spirituality: How the Bible Can Help Us Play Clean, and the upcoming Adventures in Cooking with Mother Rhonda.