Our Leaders
One of the visible reminders of our relationship and service to one another at St. Hildegard’s Community is the arrangement of our seats in a circle whenever we gather to worship, meet for classes, tend to community-building, or conduct business. This is a tangible demonstration of our commitment to an understanding of the Kin-dom as relational rather than hierarchical.
We view leadership in our community in the same way. We serve one another, each of us according to our individual gifts and calls, working together to build and strengthen our bonds with one another. Some of us exercise authority in pastoral care - as ordained clergy or as lay members – setting the rhythm of our community worship services and presiding over the Eucharistic meal. Others participate in various workgroups tasked with supporting particular needs of the community and working together to help the community live into our Vision. All along the points where we meet to practice our Commitments to each other, the Church, and the World, we support one another in this circle of servant-leadership.
Our Priest
Judith Liro
The Reverend Judith Liro was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. Though she eventually made her way to Austin, she spent many years living in Colorado, Ohio, and Okinawa with her husband Joe and their children, Christopher and Kate, before the family finally settled here in the Texas capitol in 1971.
Judith attended both Church of Christ and Presbyterian congregations in her youth and was actively involved in each before heading to Colorado College to study Psychology. There, in Colorado Springs, she met Joe (a cadet in the US Air Force Academy), and the two were married in 1964. Though Judith had moved away from her previous religious beliefs in college, when she and Joe married they began looking for a church home in preparation for establishing a family with children. It was at this point, in Fairborn, OH, that they first began attending a local Episcopal Church parish, where Judith found herself moved by the focus on liturgy, art and sacrament. When the Air Force took them to Okinawa, she was confirmed and continued to become more active in church activities when they returned to Colorado for Joe’s final assignment in the military. There, amidst the pain of losing a stillborn child, the family’s grief led to a period of great emotional torment for Judith that she remembers as a major turning point in her spiritual path. Soon after, the family’s relocation to Austin allowed her to begin a process of healing that eventually uncovered both a deep spiritual conviction and a longing to attend seminary. As she and Joe committed to involvement with the Youth Ministry at All Saints, she took the step of enrolling in courses at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Her experiences there proved to be a transformative experience revealing a call that she began to feel in the longing for a more formal theological education.
Though she faced many uphill battles as a woman in the male-dominated world of seminary, she transferred to the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in 1980, eventually winning not only the support of her fellow students - who elected her as the first female Student Body President - but of the Bishop also, who supported the evolution of her call to full ordination as an Episcopal priest.
After graduating in 1984, Judith was ordained as a deacon, and several months later – in June of 1985 – became the first woman to be ordained as a priest in Austin. Her appointment as the Chaplain to St. George’s Court and as the Asst. to the Rector at St. George’s Episcopal Church began a course that would lead to the experiences culminating in the birth of St. Hildegard’s Community several years later.
Inspired by what she’d remembered from an education conference, Judith began to feel a yearning for realizing a new understanding of the role of priest – one that saw the priest as “…a person who sings and dances and points the way.” When a new rector came to St. George’s in 1988, Judith’s position there evolved and she was named as the Associate Rector – a position she still holds today. But the breakthrough that allowed her and a few other seekers at St. George’s to begin the journey that would put to practice Judith’s desire for a community where the clergy and the laity shared the responsibilities for ministry – the seed that would later blossom into St. Hildegard’s Community – came in 1990 when the group (including the new Rector of St. George’s) traveled to Washington, D.C. to visit the Church of the Saviour. Their models of Inner/Outer Journey and creating Community proved to be a liberating experience for the Austin group. Shortly after their return to St. George’s, the group created their own School of Christian Living and began meeting on a regular basis to discuss renewing the Church.
1995 proved to be a very important year both for Judith personally and for St. George’s parish. A series of closing and opening doors pushed the congregation to begin considering alternative models for their own community – including a vision to recognize a new, fledgling community growing within the larger St. George’s congregation. On Epiphany of 1996, St. George’s blessed the creation of St. Hildegard’s Community and recognition of Judith as our priest. She has continued to serve and shepherd us ever since – singing and dancing and pointing the way.
Our Music Director
Mary Truly Ermey
by Harold ErmeyMary Truly Ermey was born and raised in 1939 in Wichita Falls, Texas, along with her three brothers. In 1971 she married Harold Ermey, and their son, Sean, was born in 1973.
Mary had little formal music study in childhood, but was immersed in her mother's singing, her brother's folksongs and Western swing band, the hymns and choral music of her family’s Presbyterian church, and a huge home library of classical and popular music recordings. As a teenager, she began singing in Jr. High and High School choirs, and in choir and sextet in the Baptist church (which she joined at 16), where she was encouraged to write and arrange her own gospel songs. She was also engaged in arts and crafts of all kinds, and loved to write poetry and stories.
Mary obtained B.Mus. (Hardin-Simmons Univ.) and M.Mus. (Florida State) in Music Theory & Composition. She later studied composition at UT Austin for four years, while working there as a teaching assistant and as Choir Director and Organist at St. George's.
Confirmed in the Episcopal Church in 1967, she was Choir Director and organist at St. George's until 1971, when she married and moved to Missouri. Returning to Austin (and St. George's) in the 1980's, she again worked at St. George's until St. Hildegard's began. She has continued to write and lead music for St. Hildegard's over the years, including Eucharistic Prayers with poetry by community members.
In her 50's, Mary earned a Master's degree from the UT School of Social Work, and worked with survivors of domestic violence at SafePlace until her retirement.
She describes her evoked gift for St. Hildegard's as "Greening Voice, which means to me the growing of the community's voice to sing - with our voices and in our lives and actions - the song of the Spirit, of peace and compassion, to our world of conflict and brutality. I truly believe that music has the power to do that.”
Listen to a sample of Mary's composition "I will kindle my fire" sung by Elisabeth Von Trapp.
Our Sacred Space Coordinator
Susan LeVieuxSusan LeVieux began attending Episcopal churches with extended family in San Antonio as young girl where she fell in love with the beauty and movement of the liturgy and sacred space. Though she was not baptized until many years later (together with her five children) her early exposure to the Episcopal Church nourished her interior yearning for worship that embraced creativity and beauty. When she (and husband, Larry) joined St. Mark’s in Palo Alto, CA in the early days of the liturgical renewal movement, they found a creative outlet for their desire to see the liturgical practices of the church reformed in such a way as to match the thirst for theological renewal that was stirring in the church.
During their time at St. Mark’s, Susan and Larry associated regularly with groups from St. Gregory’s of Nissa (a creative wellspring for Episcopal theological and liturgical renewal) and Susan began to develop her gifts for creating sacred space.
When Larry retired in 1994, he and Susan moved to Austin and began attending St. Michael’s. There they continued their effort to promote and realize liturgical renewal. But it was not until 1999 - when Susan first visited the young St. Hildegard’s Community – that she felt like she had finally discovered what church could and should be. After a year of joining with the community for Sunday services, Susan began working with others to create the sacred space elements that have become familiar hallmarks of St. Hildegard’s liturgies. Her passion for realizing the theology of space throughout the seasons of the church year continues to bless and inspire the community every time we gather.
Sophia nurtures the community's spiritual disciplines and tends the Vision and Commitments.
Martha tends to the life of the community by doing the basic housework of coordination and support in the community. It is Martha’s responsibility to schedule and publicize Viriditas gatherings. Martha gives support and clarification to all small evoked groups and can evoke a group for a specific task. Martha ensures that information needed to facilitate discernment on any issue being considered by Viriditas is gathered beforehand.
Miriam tends our liturgical life. This group plans our seasonal liturgical themes and assists those called to contribute through the creation of new liturgies for each season.
Current Miriam members
Top: Susan LeVieux, Daphne Levey, Bottom: Mary Ermey, Cindy Ybarra, Judith Liro
Set-up teams do the practical work before/after each liturgy.
Abigail facilitates the welcoming of visitors and newcomers as well as supporting those seeking to join the community.
The SLS Mission Group coordinates and conducts each term of the Servant Leadership School – St. Hildegard’s Community’s offering of transformative education in an ecumenical setting.
Pastoral Care Connecting tends to special needs during illness, death, or other times of stress by connecting those in need with those called to give support.
