Clergy & Staff

A Baton Rouge native, the Rev Tommy Dillon graduated from Louisiana State University, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University, and the General Theological Seminary, where he specialized in Anglican Liturgy. He was ordained deacon and priest at St. Luke’s Baton Rouge and served as Vicar of St. Augustine’s in Central City, LA for five years before serving 11 years on the West Coast as Rector of St. Aidan’s, San Francisco and Grace Church in Bainbridge Island, WA. He was called as Rector of St. Margaret's in September of 2016.

Tommy has 18 years of experience as a parish pastor, including responsibility for pastoral care, program development, stewardship, and administration. During that time, Tommy became a leader in community engagement. He has a passion for helping people take ministry and spirit beyond the church walls and embrace new ways of being the church in a changing world.

Before moving to the West Coast, Tommy was the first Director of Prisoner Aftercare Services for the National Volunteers of America. Previously he worked with the Volunteer of America of Greater Baton Rouge for seven years in Mental Health and Homeless Services. He also served as Co-chair for Undoing Racism in the Diocese of Louisiana.

In the Diocese of California, Tommy served as a member of the Diocesan Executive Council, Diocesan Disaster Preparedness Coordinator, Nave Chaplain at Grace Cathedral, and a Spiritual Director for Cursillo. He also served as chaplain to the Diocesan Altar Guild, as a board member for Sojourn Chaplaincy at San Francisco General Hospital, and as chair of the Episcopal Bay Area Salvadoran Coalition.

Tommy serves on the Boards of the Wild Goose Festival and the General Theological Seminary and is a frequent retreat leader, pilgrimage planner, and an instructor of liturgy. In the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, Tommy is the chair of the Stewardship Working Group, co-leader of the Transitions in Progress group (TIP) for newly ordained and new clergy in the diocese, and is the Clergy Alternate Deputy for the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.

In Tommy’s world, there is no such thing as the “outcast and the stranger.” His work with newly-released prisoners, with people suffering mental illness and homelessness, and with Hurricane Katrina survivors gave him a fearless compassion for human need. During his time in ministry, parish food bank and elder ministries flourished; Diocesan, parish, and neighborhood Disaster Preparedness groups formed; and connections in El Salvador were created through the Anglican Church of El Salvador and Foundation Cristosal.

Collaborating to create beautiful liturgy feeds his soul. Good food, good friends, and road trips with his Whippet pal Josh reveal the Holy in the everyday world.

Family - I have been married to Irene Boyd for 15 years. We have 3 children Sarah Abuhajah (25 and incidentally will be married in November at Trinity), Ian Boyd (29, he lives in Bartlesville, OK) and Alexis Boyd (23, she lives in Gonzales). Last but certainly not least is my granddaughter Isibealla (5, daughter of Alexis). Most of my family is from Oklahoma.

I was born in Oklahoma and lived there until I was about 8. We then moved to the Adirondack Mountains of New York, where I eventually graduated from High School in 1981. From there I went to school at the University of Oklahoma where I obtained my bachelors and masters in Chemical Engineering. In 1988 I moved to Baton Rouge to take an engineering position at Uniroyal Chemical in Geismar. I stayed with Uniroyal until 2000. In 2000, I switched careers and when to work as a consultant for itelligence (a Cincinnati based provider of SAP). I have been with itelligence for 18 years and have moved through various positions (consultant, Project Manager, Engagement Director, etc.). My current position is VP of Customer Engagement. My work typically has me traveling all the time to various locations. Either to get involved in sales activities, visiting clients where we have implementations going on or going to clients that are in escalation and my job is to fix it.

My religious life is quite diverse. I was raised as a Methodist but then when I went to college I got very involved in the Baptist Church and became a member there. When I moved to Baton Rouge, I struggled with finding a church home and wound up going to a Catholic Church (although that never quite felt like home either). When I married Irene, she introduced me to the Episcopal Church and I started attending Trinity in 2003 and have loved it ever since. Just before Bishop Jenkins retired (I forget the year), I had met with my priest (Ken Ritter) and I also met with Bishop Jenkins and was admitted to the Diaconate Program. Then we switched Bishops and nothing really happened until we started the Iona School in August of 2015. Joey Clavijo and I have been the first two to go through that training with folks from Mississippi. Actually we met monthly at the Gray Center. A truly wonderful place and truly wonderful people.

Marti and I returned to The Diocese of Louisiana and St. Margarets in the Fall of 2011. We had moved to Omaha, NE, following Katrina in Oct. 2005. I had said to friends, “Rhubarb was calling me home.” For those not acquainted with this plant, it grows best north of an imaginary line running across the middle of Missouri.* What a delicacy this is when turned into a Rhubarb Custard pie! Also, we have a son, Robert and his wife Mary and two grandchildren in Omaha that were part of the drawing card to return north. I’d grown up in Iowa and Marti in North Dakota.

In the summer of 2011, Peggy, our youngest daughter, her husband Kyle, and their two little ones, Zachary and Hanna came to visit us in Omaha. Zachary, well settled into his Granny’s lap, looked into her eyes and said in a most plaintive voice, “Granny, too far!, TOO FAR! Two of our daughters married Louisiana boys. They don’t move. “Tugs,” two daughters and their husbands and four grandchildren drew us back to Louisiana.

We returned to St. Margarets where I’d been rector, 1986-1989. In the fall of 1989, I introduced an experimental academically based service learning project to LSU and Southern. It was accepted by the two universities the following Spring. A large number of community service agencies provided placement for the students. It became operational in the fall of 1990. I designed and coordinated the program known as “PULSE of Louisiana,” a 501(c)3 organization, for the next five years. The project was based on the PULSE curriculum of Boston College. The aim was to provide a way to deepen not only understanding and caring, but to experience in the process, that we are drawn to be a community whole.

Formal / Informal Education:

Graduate of public schools, Muscatine, Iowa; Grinnell College, B.A.; Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, MA, B.D.; ordained a priest in the Diocese of Iowa, January 1, 1966; annual attendee of the Bernard Lonergan Workshops, Boston College, 1976-1985; 1998. I am an avid reader of the writings of Bernard Lonergan, S.J.; David Ford, Oliver O’Donovan, Richard Rohr and other contemplatives. I have had a life-long interest in wanting to understand what is going on, wanting to see the connections, “distinctions without loss of relation,” and in so doing discovering how we can be a community whole, experiencing in the flesh, the nearness “on earth as it is in heaven.”

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* Since returning I discovered at the Old Farmers Store in Gonzales that there is a variety of Rhubarb, “Victoria,” that does grow in the South. Two years ago I planted it here in our garden. I’m happy to report it’s doing very well. Unfortunately it takes 3 years before you can harvest it. I’m eagerly awaiting spring 2018, and Rhubarb Custard Pie! “3” years? Where have I heard that number before?

Hey y'all! My name’s Leslie and I am so very pleased to be the newest addition to St. Margaret’s. My husband and I recently relocated back to Louisiana from Ohio and I would just like to say we are so thankful to be back home. I have a passion for helping people and have loved being involved with charities and fundraisers for those with cancer. We were foster parents to teenagers back in Ohio and we are hopeful to continue down here. I am a serious animal lover and have been associated with pug rescue for many years. We currently have 2 rescue pugs but I'm hopeful my husband will lift the 2 dog maximum soon. We recently welcomed our first child, a boy, and we can’t wait to introduce him to everyone. In the meantime, please feel free to stop by if you're in the area or just give me a call. I look forward to meeting everyone!