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From The Pastor
Jay Scott Newman was born on 6 August 1962 in Elkin, North Carolina, a small mill town in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. His parents’ families were mostly Southern Baptists and members of the Church of the Brethren, but at age 13 he became an atheist. In 1980 he matriculated at Princeton University, and there on 15 October 1981 he experienced a conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ. On 17 January 1982 he was baptized in the Episcopal Church, and on 5 November 1982 he was received into full communion with the Catholic Church and confirmed.
Father Newman studied for the priesthood at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and received priestly formation at the Pontifical North American College; he holds graduate degrees in sacred theology and canon law. He was ordained to the diaconate on 19 December 1992 at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City and to the priesthood on 10 July 1993 at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Baptist in Charleston, South Carolina.
Father Newman has served as Catholic Chaplain to The Citadel and as pastor of St. Mark’s, Newberry; St. Boniface, Joanna; and Divine Redeemer, Hanahan. Before coming to St. Mary’s, he served at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio as Assistant Professor of Canon Law in the School of Theology and Dean of Men in the undergraduate College. He began his service as the sixteenth pastor of St. Mary’s on 28 June 2001.
Father Newman is a papal Knight in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and a member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars,the Society for Catholic Liturgy, and the Canon Law Society of America. He also serves in the Diocese of Charleston as Director of Continuing Education for Priests and as a member of the Presbyteral Council and the Vocations Board. Father Newman is active in ecumenical affairs, particularly with Anglicans, Lutherans, and Baptists, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and retreats.