Rev. Henrietta “Rhetta” L. Wiley, Ph.D, Rector

I have loved Trinity from the moment I arrived for my interview. We have a beautiful church and a rich, complicated history. More than that, though, we have a community of loving, faithful people doing our best to live up to our call as followers of Jesus. We don’t all believe exactly the same things, but we share a commitment to demonstrating that the Gospel of Jesus really is Good News.

One of my main goals at Trinity is to strengthen the bonds between our church, preschool, and consignment store so we can more visibly and effectively serve the community around us as a source of life and hope. We have so much to offer our neighbors in terms of worship, service, and spiritual growth. And it seems to me that this hurting world needs that more than ever. –Rhetta Wiley

Trinity Episcopal Church welcomed Mother Rhetta as Priest-in-Charge in 2019 and officially installed her as Rector in August 2021. She has served in the Diocese of Maryland since 2007, starting at Emmanuel in downtown Baltimore as a postulant and the Cathedral of the Incarnation as transitional deacon and assisting priest. Later she served as Interim Associate Rector at St. Margaret’s in Annapolis and then as Interim Associate Rector and School Chaplain at St. Martins-in-the-Field, Severna Park, MD. Most of these calls she served while teaching full time at Notre Dame of Maryland University.

Dr. Wiley is an independent biblical scholar who holds a BA in Classical Greek from The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a PhD from Harvard University in Hebrew Bible. In addition to NDMU she has taught at Denison University and Moravian University, and given lectures at the Walters Art Museum, Mount St. Agnes Theological Center, and many churches in the Baltimore area.

Rev. Wiley attended seminary at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA, with brief stints at The General Theological Seminary in New York and The Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA. She got her pastoral care training at the Clinical Pastoral Education program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, MD.

Rhetta is a confirmed New Yorker living in Baltimore with her wife Mary Sykes. They love travel, the theater, and good company. They are proud aunties ten times and counting and humbly serve as staff for their two cats, Kinky and Schmutz.