Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

A Tom Clancy calling

“Open minds, open arms.”

Richard Hogue
Richard Hogue
  • Holy Cross Episcopal Church
  • Contact: 204 S Freeman St., Oceanside, CA 760-930-1270 holycrosscarlsbad.org
  • Membership: 60
  • Neighborhood: Oceanside
  • Pastor: Father Richard Hogue  
  • Age: 34
  • Born: Chicago
  • Formation: Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN; Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley.
  • Years Ordained: 4

San Diego Reader: Why did you become a priest?

Sponsored
Sponsored

Father Richard Hogue: I had a conversation with our bishop when I was a young man growing up in Wisconsin. I was at one of our church camps in the Diocese of Eau Claire, and I saw the new bishop there reading a Tom Clancy novel. I thought that was cool because I was really into Tom Clancy at that time. I was about 12. We sat on a bench talking about whatever the new novel was — Patriot Games, perhaps — and at the end of the conversation the bishop said to me, “You should think about being a priest, young man.” At the time I thought, “Yeah, whatever.” When he was at my ordination, four and a half years ago, he said, “So how did that conversation go that we had?” I smiled and said, “It turned out pretty well, Bishop.” That was the spark, but what really drew me into my calling was my experience in South Africa. I lived and worked as a missionary for the Episcopal Church in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape Province, in a medical clinic in a garbage dump slum, primarily with HIV/AIDs patients and TB patients. I saw the world through a completely different lens; I met Jesus there and I never expected to. That was really the root of the call for me in my adult life – working with the poorest of the poor in South Africa.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

FH: We’re going through a visioning process here in the near future because our move from Carlsbad to Oceanside over the past year. It was a significant feat in so many regards, and gives us opportunities to reimagine who we want to be and what we want to become in the light of God. But the tagline that will always fit Holy Cross is “Open minds, open arms.” We’re intentional in reaching out to the marginalized, including the LGBTQ community, and we’re also concerned with the life of veterans. We have a significant number in our congregation with military backgrounds.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

FH: Jesus’s bigger concern is how we live this life than what comes after it. Do I believe in a heaven and a hell? They’re both there in the Bible; but, I think the message of Christianity — or more specifically the message of Jesus — is concerned about this world here and now; that’s the change of time that Jesus talks about. We use the word “apocalypse” a lot, but not in the sense that Jesus and people in his time would have understood that word. We think of Michal Bay movies about meteors hitting the earth. But Jesus was talking about the end of the world as we know it, here and now: God turning the world upside down — the first shall be last and the last shall be first. We have to go back to the Beatitudes — it’s the changing of everything. That’s the message of Christianity. It’s about this world now. God will take care of whatever comes next.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Raging Cider & Mead celebrates nine years

Company wants to bring America back to its apple-tree roots
Richard Hogue
Richard Hogue
  • Holy Cross Episcopal Church
  • Contact: 204 S Freeman St., Oceanside, CA 760-930-1270 holycrosscarlsbad.org
  • Membership: 60
  • Neighborhood: Oceanside
  • Pastor: Father Richard Hogue  
  • Age: 34
  • Born: Chicago
  • Formation: Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN; Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley.
  • Years Ordained: 4

San Diego Reader: Why did you become a priest?

Sponsored
Sponsored

Father Richard Hogue: I had a conversation with our bishop when I was a young man growing up in Wisconsin. I was at one of our church camps in the Diocese of Eau Claire, and I saw the new bishop there reading a Tom Clancy novel. I thought that was cool because I was really into Tom Clancy at that time. I was about 12. We sat on a bench talking about whatever the new novel was — Patriot Games, perhaps — and at the end of the conversation the bishop said to me, “You should think about being a priest, young man.” At the time I thought, “Yeah, whatever.” When he was at my ordination, four and a half years ago, he said, “So how did that conversation go that we had?” I smiled and said, “It turned out pretty well, Bishop.” That was the spark, but what really drew me into my calling was my experience in South Africa. I lived and worked as a missionary for the Episcopal Church in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape Province, in a medical clinic in a garbage dump slum, primarily with HIV/AIDs patients and TB patients. I saw the world through a completely different lens; I met Jesus there and I never expected to. That was really the root of the call for me in my adult life – working with the poorest of the poor in South Africa.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

FH: We’re going through a visioning process here in the near future because our move from Carlsbad to Oceanside over the past year. It was a significant feat in so many regards, and gives us opportunities to reimagine who we want to be and what we want to become in the light of God. But the tagline that will always fit Holy Cross is “Open minds, open arms.” We’re intentional in reaching out to the marginalized, including the LGBTQ community, and we’re also concerned with the life of veterans. We have a significant number in our congregation with military backgrounds.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

FH: Jesus’s bigger concern is how we live this life than what comes after it. Do I believe in a heaven and a hell? They’re both there in the Bible; but, I think the message of Christianity — or more specifically the message of Jesus — is concerned about this world here and now; that’s the change of time that Jesus talks about. We use the word “apocalypse” a lot, but not in the sense that Jesus and people in his time would have understood that word. We think of Michal Bay movies about meteors hitting the earth. But Jesus was talking about the end of the world as we know it, here and now: God turning the world upside down — the first shall be last and the last shall be first. We have to go back to the Beatitudes — it’s the changing of everything. That’s the message of Christianity. It’s about this world now. God will take care of whatever comes next.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Raging Cider & Mead celebrates nine years

Company wants to bring America back to its apple-tree roots
Next Article

Poway’s schools, faced with money squeeze, fined for voter mailing

$105 million bond required payback of nearly 10 times that amount
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader