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The Rev. Ranjit K. Mathews: Going Deeper in the Realm of God

Today’s guest is the Rev. Ranjit Mathews, rector of St. James’, New London, where he’s been for about a year now.

Ranjit was born in Brighton, Mass. to immigrant parents who came to the U.S. in the 1970s. He grew up in Sharon, Mass., majored in business administration at George Washington University, and received his M. Div from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. As a seminarian he served at St. Mary’s in Harlem and studied abroad in Bangalore, India. Ranjit was ordained deacon in 2006, and priest in 2007, both in the Diocese of Massachusetts.

His father, the Rev. Koshy Mathews, is also an Episcopal priest, who has been serving as rector of St. Peter’s in Phoenixville, PA for more than a decade. (Ranjit’s middle name is Koshy, after his father.)

Before coming to Connecticut, Ranjit served on Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s staff as the Partnership Officer for Africa. Prior to that he was associate rector of St. Luke’s, Long Beach, California a bilingual parish where he worked to build connections between the English-speaking and Spanish-speaking community members, and led the youth group. It’s where he developed a relationship with the hip-hop community that he’s carried with him. 

He’s also served as theology lecturer at the Msalato Theological College of St. John’s University in Tanzania, and assistant rector of St. Michael’s in Milton, Mass.  

Ranjit and his wife, Johanna, have a young son, Dhruv, who is six. They live in New London. 

We began with a conversation about hip hop: He loves the genre so much that he made it part of his Celebration of New Ministry last fall. He talks about his experience in California working with an organization, “Hope in Hollywood,” that brought in young adults from across LA to St. Stephen’s, Hollywood once a week. There was a meal and a DJ, and the youth would dance or rap for hours, while the leaders took the opportunity to build relationships. Some of the youth were able to come to the church during the week, as well, to talk about life, school, and family. 

After Ranjit was called to New London he began to meet some of the young adults in the hip hop community in New London. That led to their inclusion in the Celebration of New Ministry. Ranjit rapped, they danced. The grant will allow them to expand that, and go deeper.

Next, we talked to him about the city of New London, known for the submarine base, Electric Boat (that builds submarines), the Coast Guard Academy, Mitchell College, Connecticut College, the Hygenic Art gallery and performance space, and so much more. 

He calls it a fabulous city, sharing that a parishioner calls it “juicy.” What he likes in particular are the way it’s all connected, that incongruent communities and people can find congruence in places like its coffee shops and – he hopes – at St. James. The church used to host the city’s homeless hospitality center, which has since moved to its own space. Now it hosts a refugee agency, a group that works with families who are poor, and other works. He hopes to increase the number of groups that meet there.

“I’d love for St. James’ to be a convening place for incongruent,” he said, adding that his “single and only focus is on the realm of God however that manifests itself in New London.” 

While he says the parish is “popping” now with organizations that are about the work of Jesus Christ, he talks about how he sees the opportunity to build relationships, go deeper, and lean more intentionally into the work.

The conversation then moved to more personal matters. Ranjit, and his wife Johanna, were raised in the Mar Thoma Church (brought to India by the Apostle Thomas). Ranjit’s great grandfather served in that church, and was a renowned healer; his father, Koshy, decided to follow that example. After emigrating to the U.S., Koshy found a connection to The Episcopal Church, was ordained in that tradition, and raised his children in it as well.

Ranjit then shared some of the ways his father encouraged him to think more deeply about his engagement in social justice, his early experience with a more conservative faith group on campus, and, his amazing spiritual lesson learned from two girls with leprosy whom he encountered in a cathedral in India. “She broke me open and taught me about vulnerability; that gives me the passion for the work that I do,” he said.

Our final question was about where he sees God now, and about his family and his thoughts for the future. He acknowledged the need that he and his family have for their own nourishment, and reiterated how much is “popping” in New London. There’s some pushback, he said, and change is hard, yet he believes there’s integrity in walking with that pushback and resistance: “We’re paying attention to where God is leading, and sometimes that’s hard,” he said. But they’re going deeper in the realm of God.