The Rev. Emily Williams Guffey, Rector
The Rev. Emily Williams Guffey (she/her) joined Christ Church Detroit as its nineteenth rector in October 2018, the first woman to hold the position. She grew up in the area and is honored to serve in the city where her family has lived and worked for generations. Emily loves liturgy, preaching, pastoral care, education, and community development. At one of the oldest church campuses in the city, Emily is also fascinated by historic preservation and architecture. Before coming home, Emily served as associate rector at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Chicago, and program director of its 501(c)3 hunger relief organization, Ravenswood Community Services, and as seminarian at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Capitol Hill, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Alexandria, and Sibley Memorial Hospital. Prior to seminary, Emily led music at several parishes in Chicago and Virginia and managed national clinical research projects. She holds degrees from Virginia Theological Seminary, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, and Northwestern University, and certificates in Godly Play, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, congregational development, and nonprofit administration. She and her husband, the Rev. Andrew (Andy) Guffey, PhD, are the proud parents of two young sons, and when not at church, are often found at the baseball and soccer fields.
The Rev. Dr. David D. Dieter
The Rev. Dr. David D. Dieter (he/him) joined Christ Church as a long-term supply priest prior to Rev. Emily’s arrival in 2018. Prior, David served as senior associate rector and lead priest at Christ Church Grosse Pointe. A native of Maryland, he attended Indiana Wesleyan University completing BS degrees in Psychology and Sociology with a minor in music. David then spent 25 years as a Nursing Home and Retirement Housing developer in Maryland and Michigan. In 1987 David was hired as Executive Director of St. Luke’s Episcopal Home from which he led the development of Canterbury-on-the-Lake as CEO. Having discerned a call to ordained ministry with support from the Diocese having spent many years in active service, David was accepted at The General Seminary in 2000. While there, he was staff seminarian at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, elected as the seminaries’ Chief Precentor and President of the Community Council–positions not held simultaneously for 117 years. After completing his Masters of Divinity degree, David was then hired by Christ Church Grosse where he served for a decade. In 2010, David was awarded the Doctor of Ministry, having read for the degree at Christ Church College. Oxford, David lives in St. Clair Shores with his partner and husband of nearly 4 decades, Richard P. Thomas, who also serves as CCD’s Floral Iconographer. They share their home with Silky Terrier, Ramsey.
Dr. Edward Maki-Schramm, Director of Music
Dr. Edward Maki-Schramm (he/him) joined the Christ Church staff in February 2016. As Director of Music, he brings not only his many talents, but a depth of experience within Detroit and Michigan and well beyond. He received his Bachelor of Music in organ performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in organ performance from the University of Michigan. Formerly, he was Director of Music at Central United Methodist Church (Detroit) for 16 years, and also held various music staff positions in Episcopal, Lutheran, and Baptist churches. Since 2012, he has been the director of the Community Chorus of Detroit. In addition, he is a Senior Major Gift Officer at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Beth Ann Tesluk, Associate for Communications
Beth Ann (she/her) joined the staff in August 2019, and feels privileged to be able to tell Christ Church Detroit’s stories in new ways, and share them with new audiences. She graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in English Literature, with an additional focus on the History & Literature of Religions. Beth Ann’s marketing career has evolved with the times, and she has worked in print, direct mail, visual display, and database marketing. Beth Ann lives in Dryden with her husband (John) and daughter (Ella), and loves reading, gardening, and cooking. She regularly attends St. John’s Episcopal Church – Dryden.
Randy Gilchrist, Associate for Operations
Randy (he/him) is a native Detroiter who has lived in the metro area for all but three years of his life. He was introduced to the Episcopal Church in 2003 and took his first position, as a manager of the bookshop at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, in 2005. Since the bookshop closed in 2009, Randy has worked in administrative positions in four parishes in the Diocese of Michigan. Randy’s professional experience is broad-ranging and includescomputer programming, landscape design and construction, auto parts manufacturing, and retail management. Outside of work, Randy is a singer (tenor) and actor. Randy even sang in the Christ Church choir for a time as well. Randy is a proud father, uncle, brother, and nephew to his family in the Detroit area.
Katrina Van Maanen, Youth Choir Director
Katrina (she/her) joined the staff as Youth Choir Director in 2018. She also sings in the Christ Church Detroit Choir, performs regularly around Detroit, and teaches voice, piano, and acting at Van Maanen Studios, LLC, in Berkley. Learn more about Katrina at www.katrinavanmaanen.com.
Robyn Campagne, Bookkeeper
Robyn (she/her) joined the staff in April 2021, after her daughter Katrina VanMaanen shared our post looking for a Bookkeeper.
She has over 25 years of accounting and tax preparation experience with CPA firms as well as performing Controller functions for various industries. Robyn currently manages the accounting and bookkeeping practice at Campagne & Company, the accounting and tax practice she shares with her husband Jim. At Campagne & Company, she services her own clients in a Controller/Accountant function, as well as preparing taxes for firm clients. She has formal training in tax preparation, and continues to stay current through continuing professional education. Robyn is a QuickBooks specialist and enjoys training QuickBooks users or performing the accounting function for them.
Robyn is also a singer and music director. She has directed children’s choir and middle school musicals. She also enjoys traveling, camping, 5Ks and is will never turn down an invitation to Karaoke.
In addition to husband Jim and daughter Katrina, she has 2 other children, Kenny and AJ.
Sandy Flanagan Zull, Pastoral Team Lead
Sandy’s (she/her) roots are in Southwestern Indiana. Evansville sits along a huge bend of the Ohio River. Her family was more Southern than Northern in speech and culture as most of her ancestors had left farms in Kentucky and Southern Illinois to work in factories. The Ohio River Valley was settled by Germans whose cultural impact remains to this day. All those influences made for an interesting mish-mash of “how we do things.” It never occurred to Sandy that she would ever leave, but leave she did. Sandy attended Indiana State University in Terre Haute and from there her world expanded exponentially. In the decades that followed her life wound through Ann Arbor, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Lancaster, and to her family’s home of twenty-three years, Detroit. They moved here in 1999. Sandy attended Christ Church Detroit from that time until 2008. She married her husband, Aaron, in 1979 when he was the rector of St. John Oak Ridges, Toronto. Single adventures led to a two-some adventuring and then four of us spreading our wings far and wide. They have two grown sons who live in the Detroit area. Sandy had two degrees in elementary education collecting dust as it were. Upon moving here she decided she would drop myself into the Detroit Public Schools at age fifty-five, even thought she had not been in a public school classroom for twenty-five years. Her twelve years in Southwest Detroit combined with specialized work with the Michigan Department of Education have been one of her life’s greatest joys. God’s winds blow us to surprising places. “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.” She am delighted to be here, again.