Check out what’s happening this Sunday

Annual Parish Meeting and Vestry Election

In accordance with the Church’s Bylaws, the Vestry has set the time and place for the annual parish meeting and election of Vestry officers. These will take place, on Sunday, February 8, 2026, at 10 am in the nave of the church and online. There will be a formal presentation and time for a Q&A. All are invited and welcome to attend. Registration for online participation is available here. All who are qualified to vote are encouraged to do so.

The Vestry has nominated the following people for election:

Ray Vandenberg for a second two-year term as Warden,
James Marion for a second 3-year term as Vestry member,
Natalie Johnson for an initial 3-year term as Vestry member, after completing the remaining two years of an unexpired term
Elizabeth Min and Robert Sweeney for initial 3-year terms as Vestry members, after each completing the remaining one year of an unexpired term
Caroline Naralasetty to complete the remaining year of an unexpired term

Nominee Bios

Supplemental Information Regarding the Annual Parish Meeting, Voting and Vestry Nominations

On Sunday, February 8, immediately following the 9 am Eucharist, instructions on how to vote, ballots, ballot boxes, nominees’ biographies will be available in hard copy form in the nave of the Church.  The polls will be open through the 11 am Eucharist service.  For in-person voting, qualified voters should take one ballot only and may vote once for each of the nominees they want to be elected as a Warden or a Vestry member. Online participants must register and will be given a link to a ballot at the start of the meeting.

Only qualified voters are eligible to vote. To be qualified to vote in a parish meeting, the Canons of The Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Diocese of New York determined the following qualifications: “Persons of the age of 18 years or more belonging to the parish, who have been baptized and are regular attendants of its worship and contributors to its support for at least 12 months prior to an annual election or a special meeting at which they are in attendance.” 

The currently constituted Vestry nominates candidates for election. There is no absentee or proxy or write-in voting or nominations from the floor at the annual meeting.  

If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Liz Gillespie in the Office of the Rector:    or 212-378-0263.

For a second two-year term as Warden

Raymond L. Vandenberg

Ray Vandenberg has been a member of St. Bart’s since 1987. He and his former wife, Margaret, were married by Tom Bowers, the former Rector of the parish, and his sons, Chris (now 36), and Will (now 33), were baptized at St. Bart’s as infants. Both were confirmed at St. Bart’s. Ray served on the vestry previously for a number of years between 1989 and the early 2000s, and as a Warden and Chancellor. He also served as a vice chancellor for the Diocese of New York for approximately ten years, and special counsel to the Presiding Bishop from 2016 to 2019.

Ray has been a Warden since 2024 and also works with the Rev. Meredith Ward to coordinate the Grief Group and the Retirement Group. He and Lucy Gianino are co-leaders of the West Side Connects Group. He is also currently serving on a Discernment Committee for a candidate for the priesthood.

Ray was born in 1948 and grew up in Bucks County, PA. He attended public schools and spent his senior year of high school as an exchange student in Celle, Germany. He remains in contact with his exchange family and has had close relationships with several generations over the past six decades. In fact, he will be attending the confirmation of his Goddaughter there in April of this year.

Ray graduated from Cornell in 1970 and from the University of Michigan Law School in 1975. Following law school, Ray moved to New York City and was a litigator with two large New York law firms for twelve years and managing partner of a small boutique firm for almost three decades. He is a director of three private philanthropic foundations.

Ray and his wife, Roz Walrath, live on the Upper West Side and near Twin Peaks in San Francisco. Their combined total of five children, their spouses and significant others have become close, and they all enjoy holidays and vacations together, whenever possible. Ray and Roz both enjoy traveling, running, skiing, working out, and entertaining family and friends. Ray’s son, Will, his wife, Kate, and their 2-year-old daughter, Abby, live in Chicago. His son, Chris, lives on the Upper West Side.

For a second three-year term as a Vestry member

James Marion, MD

James F. Marion, MD, has been a member of St. Bart’s since 2003. He is married to Allison Rutledge-Parisi, and his two daughters, Molly and Ella were baptized at St. Bart’s. James previously served on the Vestry and as Warden. The family volunteered for the Saturday Breakfast Program for many years. More recently James served on the St. Bart’s Medical Advisory Board during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

James is a Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and an Attending Physician at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He is Director of Education and Program Director for the Advanced Fellowship at the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Marion is an active clinical investigator currently involved in numerous clinical trials.  

James, Allison, and Ella live in Harlem with their Rhodesian Ridgeback, Phineas. He enjoys running, hiking, cooking, and writing.

For an initial 3-year term as Vestry member, after completing the remaining two years of an unexpired term

Natalie Johnson

Natalie Johnson was raised in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois, and, after graduating from Smith College in 1981 with a degree in economics, met her husband, Ken, while they were both serving as lending officers on Wall Street at The Bank of New York (now BNY Mellon). She has been a member of St. Bart’s since 2021.

After raising their children in Westchester, Natalie and Ken relocated to New York City in 2020. Natalie recalls that at the time, despite being in the middle of a pandemic, she found a home at St. Bart’s. She cites its welcoming spirit, with Christ at the center of the community, as a leading factor in this relationship, and notes that St. Bart’s provided her with a quiet respite amid the hustle and bustle of the city life. Since joining the St.Bart’s community, she has served as a Lector, Usher, Co-Leader of a Connects group, Forum Assistant, Vestry member, Development Committee member, Chair of Development Committee for one year, and has participated in numerous classes and attended many concerts at the church.

Community has always been important to Natalie. She has served as a Board member of her former church, the Junior League, the PTA, and was president of her local pool club. Other volunteer roles have included co-chairman positions with a high school swim team, an Arts in Education program, and the Hospitality committee at her former church, where she organized a celebration for its 150th Anniversary and facilitated the Women’s Bible study program.

Returning to the workforce after her second son was born, Natalie launched a custom-design cake business providing special occasion cakes and ran the company as a sole proprietor for 20 years. She closed that business in 2011 to pursue a manager’s job at a store in Bedford, N.Y., and remained in that role for two years until Ken retired and they began traveling to visit family and enjoy time with their grandchildren.

Today Natalie is a member of the Central Park Conservancy, the Met Museum, the Guggenheim, NYC Ballet, The Joyce, Ballet Hispánico and The Cosmopolitan Club, where she serves as Co-Chair of the Dance committee, bringing various forms of dance to the club programming.

For initial 3-year terms as Vestry members, after completing the remaining one year of an unexpired term

Lizzie Min

Lizzie first discovered St. Bart's through its music program. She first visited the church for its New Year's Eve organ concert in 2020 and was struck by the grandeur of the organ and the beautiful architecture. She began attending online services during the pandemic. Once in-person worship resumed, she quickly found a spiritual home in St. Bart's and a warm, welcoming community that she holds dear. 

Lizzie is a native New Yorker and hails from northeast Queens. She holds a BS in Chemistry from MIT and a PhD in Earth and Environmental Science from Columbia University. Her doctoral research focused on Alaskan tundra ecosystems. Environmentalism has been the main theme of her career, which has included working at an urban vertical farm as an R&D scientist and her current position as Sustainability lead at NYC Department of Environmental Protection.

Lizzie is an active member of the parish. She has served as a Connects group co-leader, is a member of the flower guild, hospitality team, 20s/30s group, and has been ushering since 2023.

Lizzie currently lives in Queens. She enjoys the wide range of cultural offerings the city has, particularly the performing arts. Her hobbies include running, fiber arts, and reading. 

Robert ("Robby") E. Sweeney II

Robby is a native of Charleston, SC and grew up in a non-denominational congregation, where his mother and aunt serve as the volunteer music director and organist. He sang in the youth choir, the men's choir, and served as the pianist for Sunday School. His love of beautiful sacred music eventually led Robby to the Episcopal Church while in college. Similarly, he found his way to St. Bart's after moving to NYC in 2011 when a fellow musician from back home recommended the parish, highlighting the strong music program. Robby almost immediately connected with the music, the preaching, and the community here and has been a parishioner of St. Bart's ever since. 

Robby graduated with honors from University of Florida with a B.S. in Microbiology, also minoring in Classical Piano Performance and French Language. He then returned to Charleston and earned his medical degree at Medical University of South Carolina, being inducted into the Gold Key Humanism Honors Society. His medical training subsequently brought him to NYC, where he completed his residency in general surgery at The Mount Sinai Hospital, followed by a clinical and research fellowship in thoracic surgery. Ever since his first introduction to cancer research, after being awarded an American Cancer Society research grant during his undergraduate tenure, the advancement of cancer care has been a professional focus throughout his career. Robby is currently in the final stage of completing his PhD in Cancer Immunology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is currently a Director, and Senior Analyst for a healthcare and biotechnology-focused long/short equity fund internal to UBS Asset Management, where he personally focuses on using his expertise and background to help deploy capital to invest in companies developing promising novel cancer therapeutics. 

Robby has been a member of the St Bartholomew's Choir since 2014, which has deeply enriched his worship and his connection to the St. Bart's community. In 2021, he participated as a panelist alongside other healthcare professionals from the congregation for The Forum, discussing the then ongoing COVID-19 pandemic from the Christian healthcare worker's perspective. Robby enjoys introducing as many people as he can to the St. Bart's community.  He also serves on the Board of Directors for four-time GRAMMY-nominated classical music ensemble, The Clarion Music Society. 

Robby enjoys experiencing the many cultural and culinary offerings that living in NYC affords, He enjoys early classical music, opera, traveling, languages, exploring new restaurants, and continuing to practice classical piano at home. 

To complete one year of an unexpired term as a Vestry member

Caroline Naralasetty

Caroline came to St. Bart’s through the former Preschool, which her son attended for three years. She has been a regular parishioner since 2022, and was baptized here after completing the Pathfinders program.

Caroline currently serves as the Director of Development at the Lycée Français de New York, a pre-K-12 independent school on the Upper East Side. Previously, she was President of the French-American Foundation - U.S., the only organization dedicated solely to strengthening the French-American relationship at the highest levels of leadership by connecting business, government, and cultural leaders. Caroline spent a decade as Corporate Vice President at consulting firm CCS, where she planned and implemented capital and endowment fundraising campaigns for a wide variety of nonprofit organizations.

Caroline regularly attends the 11am service. She co-chaired the 2026 Stewardship Campaign and is a member of the Development Committee. Her son is a member of the Choristers group.

Born in Paris and raised in New York City, Caroline holds an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business, an MA from NYU’s Institute of French Studies, and a BA from Stanford University. She lives with her husband, son, and dog in Midtown East, and enjoys reading, walking, baking, and exploring the city’s restaurants in her free time.