About Our Minister in Residence Program

The Community Church does not have a permanent minister. Rather, it has developed a unique program whereby retired clergy from the US are typically invited for a period of two months to lead our worship service on Sundays and assist in the spiritual and other short term needs of the congregation during their stay. We provide round trip transportation between San Miguel and the minister and his/her spouse's closest to home international airport, and we provide an apartment for them to live in while they are here.

Currently we have several ministers who have returned one or more times. Our ministers are ordained in various denominations such as: Presbyterian, United Methodist, ELCA (Lutheran), United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Episcopalian and others.

We are currently accepting inquiries from potential minister-in-residence for 2025. If you are interested, please click on the Contact Tab to send an inquiry for more information.

black cross during day
black cross during day

Our Current & Recent Ministers-in-Residence

The Rev. Daniel Harrell

July through August 31, 2024

Daniel lives in Minneapolis where he is mostly retired aside from part time work as a therapist and a chef’s assistant. He worked for more than 40 years as a pastor for churches in New Hampshire, Boston and Edina, MN. He served a short stint as Editor-in-Chief for Christianity Today magazine, has written numerous articles and books and taught at various colleges, seminaries and other venues on issues mostly related to Christianity and science and psychology. He strives to live according to Galatians 2:19-20: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”

A Southerner by birth, Daniel hails from North Carolina and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in Psychology and Religion (1983). A New Englander by choice, Daniel moved to Boston for the Red Sox and earned his M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell seminary (1988) and his PhD in Psychology from Boston College (1993). Daniel is a widow (Dawn, 2019) and father to Violet (16). Now residing in Minnesota by the will of God, he does life with Shelley Meadows, his lovely partner of four years, and her three adult children. Daniel enjoys cooking, art, travel, kayaking when he can, cycling and squash (the racket sport, but the vegetable too).

The Rev. William Inglish

September 1 through October 27, 2024

Bill and Connie Inglish return to the Community Church for a second visit, making all their clergy colleagues green with envy.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, remains home base, the locale to which they return following their various travels, which this year include a journey to Japan and another to Uganda, where their only child, a daughter, has lived 19 years, now with a husband and two children, seven and five.

Bill is a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) minister, having served congregations in Oklahoma, Illinois and Kansas. Connie was employed denominationally in development and as a retirement advisor.

When not checking sights off their bucket list, Connie is into yoga and reading and Bill into golf as a fully liberated man, currently playing from the women’s tees.

The Rev. Steve Winkler

Returning for March & April 2025

In early February 2016, Steve retired from his position as Senior Pastor of the Protestant Community Church of Medford Lakes, New Jersey, and Heather “retired” from her volunteer work as an elementary school guidance counselor working with young people from the mean streets of Camden, New Jersey. Three weeks later the Winklers were on their way to San Miguel de Allende. Fast forward eight years, we find ourselves packing for our sixth trip to San Miguel, and a seventh stint as Minister-in-Residence (once, preaching during the pandemic, from our home in Vermont).

Since our last MIR experience, I have had a wonderful opportunity to share a bridge ministry with a colleague, whose 30-year pastorate overlapped the 20 years I was the pastor of South Congregational Church in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. As the Spirit would have it, our work ended with the arrival of a settled pastor on October 13. During this year, Heather immersed herself in volunteer work at the church and throughout the community. And God’s timing for our impending visit seems impeccable.

We could not have anticipated the blessings our time with the Community Church of SMA would be for the two of us! Four parsonages, two worship sites, a fiftieth wedding anniversary, and countless cherished relationships later…Here we come, again!

Steve is an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ. Steve and Heather have been married for 54 years, and have lived and served in S. Royalton, Vermont, and Lima, Ohio, in addition to the aforementioned parishes. They have three children (Jeremiah, Gabriel, and Zoe), and four grandchildren.

The Rev. Dr. Anna Copeland January & February 2025

The Rev. Dr. Anna V. Copeland served three churches of the United Church of Christ as a Senior Minister for nearly three decades: in Greeley, Colorado; Hinsdale, Illinois; and just north of Boston in York, Maine. At the close of 2024, Dr. Anna retired after serving five years at the Community Church of Vero Beach, Florida.

Dr. Copeland graduated with a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of Nebraska, a Master of Divinity from Yale University Divinity School, and a Doctor of Ministry from Chicago Theological Seminary. Through worship, teaching and writing, she seeks to equip people of faith to think theologically about the world in which we live, to follow the Way of Jesus, and to share God's grace, mercy and peace with all God's people.

Together with her husband Dr. Ellis Copeland, Anna founded The Copeland Institute of northwest Boulder County in Colorado, a retreat center for deep faith work. She also has served as Trustee for The Chicago Theological Seminary, adjunct faculty for the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, and a Trustee for The Fund for Theological Education out of Atlanta.

Dr. Anna has led international mission trips to Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Cuba, and faith pilgrimages to Israel, Turkey and Greece. She returns to us now as Minister in Residence for the third time, also continuing commitments to Common Hope in Guatemala and Habitat for Humanity International. Avocations for Anna Copeland include wilderness and adventure travel, writing, and the visual and performing arts. Anna and Ellis enjoy exceptional food and conversations that celebrate the feast of friendship and the feast of life. Together they nourish an extended family of five grown children and ten grandchildren scattered across the US from Milwaukee and Chicago to LA.