The Shadow
The Rev. Robert Gilman has been selected to serve as rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Covington.
Gilman, a retired U.S. Air Force chaplain, was selected to serve as rector by the church’s vestry.
He assumed his duties at the church Dec. 1.
He will be splitting his time between Emmanuel and Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Highland County. Gilman is priest in charge of the Highland County church.
At Emmanuel, he replaces the Rev. LeBaron Taylor as rector.
Taylor left Emmanuel in November to accept a call to a church in Ponchatoula, La. He had served as rector of Emmanuel since April 2008.
Gilman is married to a former rector of Emmanuel, the Rev. Connie Wolfe Gilman. She returned to the Highlands from Houston, Texas, in June to become chaplain at Boys’ Home.
Connie Gilman will support her husband’s ministry at Emmanuel by serving as supply priest. She will preside over the celebration of Eucharist and preach once a month.
“This feels like home to me,” the Rev. Gilman said of his recent move to Covington. “I am a guy who has never really had a home.”
The son of a power plant start-up engineer, Gilman lived abroad while growing up. Between moves with his parents and serving in the Air Force for 29 years, he has lived in 40 states and several foreign countries.
“I’ve always dreamed of a place with a picket fence and I’m living it right here,” he said of Covington.
A graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Gilman began his ministry at two parishes in Arlington. He joined the Air Force during the Vietnam War and his 29-year career included stints at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., where he served as command chaplain, and Sarajevo, where he was command chaplain for NATO forces following the Bosnian War.
After retiring from the military, Gilman briefly lived in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., where he provided supply work at St. Thomas Episcopal Church.
“I fell in love with the area, but I discovered I didn’t retire very well,” he said.
From White Sulphur Springs, he moved to Norfolk to serve as rector of an Episcopal parish for nine years. After leaving Norfolk, he lived in Houston and was interim rector of a large Episcopal parish in the downtown area. He was also chaplain at a veteran’s hospital in Houston.
Gilman is the father of three daughters, Lara, who works for a non-governmental organization in England; Katherine, an attorney in New York; and Amanda, an attorney for the U.S. Social Security Administration in Baltimore, Md.
