Clergy pix & bios

The Reverend W. Dexter Bender, Interim Rector

Dex is 61 and a native Floridian.  After a career in the environmental business, he attended seminary at Virginia Theological Seminary.  He was ordained in 1995 in the Diocese of Southwest Florida.  He served as associate rector for six years at Christ Church in Bradenton, Florida, a 100-year-old parish with 1300 members.  He developed a special interest in outreach, mission and youth.  Most recently he completed a two-year interim assignment at Church of the Good Shepherd in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee.

Dex and his wife of 31 years, Heidi, have a home in Sewanee, although they live right now in Lookout Mountain.  Heidi is minister at Lookout Mountain United Methodist Church.  They have six daughters and nine grandchildren.

The Reverend Carl Bright, Interim Associate Rector

A native Alabamian, Carl grew up in Montgomery. He received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama in 1960, and spent the next two years as an active duty Army officer.He returned to Birmingham in December 1962 and worked in investments and property management for eleven years before leaving for seminary. He received his M.Div. from the University of the South in 1976, and was ordained deacon and priest that same year.

Carl has served parishes in Alabama and South Carolina, and he spent the last fourteen years of his ministry in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast where he was the first full-time vicar and then first rector of Christ the King Episcopal Church in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.

He retired in 2003 and lives in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Since retirement, he has served as interim rector at Christ Church, Albertville, and at St. Mary's, Jasper.

Carl and Caroline Marbury Bright have been married for 48 years. They have two sons, one daughter and one granddaughter.

The Reverend Dave Drachlis, Deacon

Dave was ordained to the diaconate in the diocese of Alabama in October 2004 and has since served as deacon at St. Thomas.  He also serves as a member of the Diocese of Alabama's Department of Mission and Outreach, co-chair of Alabama's Companion Diocese Commission, and as Assistant Disaster Response Coordinator for the Diocese.

Dave was born and raised in the big city of Los Angeles, served 12 years in the U.S. Air Force, and more than 25 years as a spokesman for the national Aeronautics and Space Administration.  He has called North Alabama home for the past quarter century.

Dave is married to the form Sharon Baumgardner of Cincinnati, Ohio.  They have three daughters and five grandchildren.