PORT CLINTON – Rev. Barb Reszko, the new Priest-in-Charge at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, has brought to the ministry a passion for helping people and an excitement about expanding the church’s reach into the community. A bivocational priest, Reszko is also a Licensed Independent Social Worker who operates a private therapy practice in Toledo, where she lives.

Reszko earned a Masters of Arts Social Work from the University of Chicago and a Masters of Divinity from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in 2009. She moved back to her hometown of Toledo in 2010, and, strongly feeling the call to ministry, she began the Discernment Process in 2021. The Episcopal Church’s Discernment Process journey allows potential clergy to test the sincerity of their calling.

“I moved back to Toledo in 2010 and attended the Episcopal church with my parents. I helped with lay ministry and started getting messages that I was supposed to be doing more,” Reszko said.

Reszko earned a degree in Anglican Studies in 2025, was called to be the Dean-in-Charge at St. Thomas on Dec. 1, 2025, and was ordained on Dec. 18. She will continue her Toledo practice while serving as Priest-in-Charge at St. Thomas, and she hopes to empower church members to have a more active role in ministry at the church.

“We’re looking at different ways to encourage lay leadership, to find more ways to do church without having a priest do everything,” she said.

Embracing ministry as a second career was a matter of God’s timing, Reszko said. Now, her two careers blend into greater impact.

“I grew up in the church and there was always part of me that felt called to ministry, but sometimes it takes a while for things to fall into place,” she said. “I was definitely called to do therapy and ministry. Both of these vocations can inform each other.”

Reszko is now leading a church with a history of helping. The church distributes bags of nutritious food to people in need, and Reszko hopes to expand that ministry. Until about a year ago, St. Thomas partnered with Peace Lutheran Church to offer monthly free community meals. The events provided a warm meal and connection for local residents. The once-popular program struggled to revive after the Covid shutdowns, but Reszko hopes to one day offer something similar to the community.

St. Thomas also has a history of supporting the local recovery community. Reszko is exploring ways to reestablish that connection.

“Maybe we can give them space for meetings, or maybe we can go to the recovery homes,” she said.

Reszko faces the exciting challenge of serving a tourist area church where the congregation blossoms with snowbirds and vacationers in the summer months. In the churches of her youth, ministry programs followed the school year, but in Port Clinton, ministry expands in the summer.

“I haven’t even met some of our parishioners who haven’t returned home yet,” she said. “I’m thinking of things we can do in the summer.”

The substance of all of Reszko’s plans is connection. She wants to draw her parishioners into deeper service inside the church, and she wants the church to stretch its reach into the community. Her desire to encourage connection aligns with the foundation of the Episcopal Church, which still uses the 1540s Book of Common Prayer that has been central to church worship for centuries.

“We are a liturgical church. Our service structure follows the Revised Common Lectionary. That connects us to other communities,” Reszko said. “We still use the Book of Common Prayer. That connects us to the larger community and even to those who are no longer with us.”

In the coming months, Reszko wants to better connect with the people she will serve.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know the Port Clinton community,” she said. “I want to spend more time this summer getting to know the people.”

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