Matthew Corkern (’95) Oversees Outreach Ministries, Leads Pilgrimages

When Matthew Corkern (’95) becomes a canon (a hierarchical position in the Episcopal Church) at age 32 at Christ Church Cathedral in Nashville, Tenn., this November, he will be the youngest Episcopal canon in the United States. Corkern, who joined the staff at Christ Church Cathedral (the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee) as an associate rector in July 2004 after being recruited during a national search, seemed both surprised and excited by this honor.  

He speculated that the search committee viewed his age and enthusiasm as assets to this position. As the associate rector, he is responsible for overseeing the cathedral’s ministry to newcomers, young adults (people in their twenties, thirties and forties) and youth, he said. He spoke enthusiastically about all aspects of his ministry, from visitation to counseling to preaching to participating in worship services every Sunday.  

With 157 youth and over 550 young adults participating in its programs, the cathedral has a reputation for vibrancy both locally and nationally, Corkern said. He challenges the youth and young adults to join with the cathedral’s other parishioners in mission and ministry.  

Corkern highlighted three recent initiatives: a partnership with St. Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral in Jackson, Miss., an outreach ministry to the servicemen and women of the Fort Campbell Army Base on the Tennessee-Kentucky border and a series of pilgrimages he plans and leads.  

A native of Mississippi, Corkern empathized with the plight of Gulf Coast residents affected by Hurricane Katrina and enthusiastically embraced the newly forged sister-church relationship between Christ Church Cathedral and St. Andrew’s Cathedral (the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi). Corkern estimates that, like him, approximately two-thirds of the Christ Church congregants have family and friends in Mississippi, giving this outreach ministry a particularly personal context.  

At the moment, Christ Church is concentrating on raising money to assist six Episcopal churches along the Mississippi coast that were completely destroyed and two others that were irreparably damaged. Corkern plans to send crews of young adults to Mississippi as early as January to assist in rebuilding these churches and the surrounding communities. In addition, teams of the cathedral’s youth will travel to Mississippi during spring break to volunteer on construction projects and in tutoring-mentoring programs for local children. 

Corkern cited his personal ties to the Fort Campbell outreach ministry as well. Shortly after moving to Nashville, Corkern received a phone call from a parishioner in McLean, Va., where he served at St. John’s Episcopal Church from July 2001 to July 2004. She told him that her 23-year-old daughter, Kimberly Johnson, had just been stationed at Fort Campbell.  

Feeling the need for a familiar connection within a religious community, Johnson started driving 45 minutes from the base to Christ Church on Sundays to attend services and participate in the young-adult activities. When the time came for Johnson’s deployment to Baghdad, Corkern and two members of Christ Church drove up to Fort Campbell to join her mother in seeing her off. 

“I was struck by how young the soldiers were and how so many of them had no one to see them off,” Corkern said. And so the idea of an outreach ministry to these troops took form. The young adults at Christ Church began “adopting” Fort Campbell soldiers. 

Parishioners will travel to the base to bid the soldiers farewell when many of them depart for Iraq this December. During their adoptees’ deployment, parishioners will send them care packages and maintain regular email contact. Johnson, for example, communicates daily with her friends at Christ Church via email, Corkern said. 

In addition to orchestrating the cathedral’s youth and young-adult outreach ministries in Mississippi and at Fort Campbell, Corkern also plans and leads pilgrimages to historically significant Christian sites in places such as Jerusalem, Rome and the British Isles. He has conducted a total of nine pilgrimages for adults and one for teens since leading his first pilgrimage while a seminarian at Yale’s Berkeley Divinity School. 

This past summer, for example, his group of pilgrims followed the Pilgrims’ Way, one of Europe’s oldest routes, stretching 120 miles from Winchester to Canterbury. For Corkern, the pilgrimages bring together his love of history and art. But more importantly, they resonate spiritually. 

“A pilgrimage is both an inward and outward journey,” Corkern said. “During a pilgrimage we cross a holy threshold to a closer relationship with God, ourselves and others. I think all of life is about walking the Pilgrims’ Way, about being a pilgrim on the pathways that lead to God.” 

Corkern is already busy planning his next two pilgrimages. A pilgrimage scheduled for June 20-July 2, 2006, will introduce participants to the history, art, architecture and culture of Scottish Lowlanders as well as the changing nature of the church in Scotland. 

Next Corkern will collaborate with Charles Johnson, a retired University of Richmond art-history professor, on an October 22-November 3, 2006, pilgrimage to Florence, Assisi and Rome. Corkern will provide the spiritual and cultural instruction on the trip, and Johnson will offer insights on the art and architecture. Anyone who is interested in learning more about either of these pilgrimages may contact Corkern at 615-383-8597 or mcorkern@christcathedral.org.  

His education at University of Richmond has clearly influenced Corkern’s life and work. In addition to the love of art he developed as a student under Johnson’s tutelage, Corkern said Gill Robinson Hickman and Howard Prince, former dean of the Jepson School, made a lasting impression on him. “Both Howard Prince and Gill Robinson Hickman lived Greenleaf’s notion of servant leadership,” he said. “We all have the notion of servant leadership within us; it just needs to be awakened.”  

Corkern credits his faith with awakening his servant-leadership instincts. “As a priest I see my job as teaching people to follow Christ while leading and serving others,” he said.