Standing Committee Nominee Biographies

Voting will be open immediately following the conclusion of our Synod Business Meeting on May 30, 2020 and will remain open until 12:00pm EST on Monday, June 1, 2020.​

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PRESBYTER NOMINEES

The Very Rev. Mark Engel

The Very Rev. Mark Engel, currently serves as an assisting priest/Pastor of Discipleship at Holy Spirit Anglican Church, Akron, Ohio, as the Akron Area Dean of the ADGL, and as the Chair of the ADGL Standing Committee. He previously served as the Rector and Founding Pastor of Gateway Anglican Church (founded in 2009 and aligned with the ADGL in 2015). Fr. Mark was ordained to the diaconate on June 8, 2014 and to the presbyterate on November 6, 2014 by the Rt. Rev. Roger Copeland Ames. In addition, Fr. Mark currently serves as adjunct faculty for Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA, on the board of directors of Transformed Hearts Ministries in Post Falls, ID, and as an Instructor in the U. S. Center for World Missions Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course.

Fr. Mark co-founded Restoration House Ministries International (RHMI) in 2008 and served as its Executive Director until it was enfolded under the Gateway Church ministry umbrella in January 2012. In order to launch RHMI, Mark resigned his position as Senior Pastor of First Friends Church of Canton, Ohio on June 30, 2008, the primary ministry role in which he served since 1997.

He graduated from Malone University in 1978 with a B.A. in Christian Ministries and Business & Economics and from Ashland Theological Seminary in 1982 with an M. Div. in Biblical Studies.

Fr. Mark has been married to Terri for 38 years. They are blessed to be the parents of three adult children.

He began in the gospel ministry 41 years ago by serving as a youth pastor (2 years). Fr. Mark and Terri then served together as pastors in Cleveland, Ohio (5 years) and as missionaries to Taiwan (10 years). From 1995 – 2008 they served in pastoral leadership at First Friends Church in Canton.
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Fr. Mark has previously served as an associate trainer and board member of a mission organization whose focus is training church leaders in East Asia, as an adjunct professor of Missions/Cross-Cultural Ministry and as a member of the Advisory Council of the School of Theology at Malone University, and has been actively participating in City/County ministerial associations.
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LAYPERSON NOMINEES

Dr. I. Richmond Nettey

As the grandson of a priest and son of an Anglican Warden, Dr. I. Richmond Nettey serves as an elected member of the Vestry at Holy Trinity Anglican (HTA) Church in Hudson, Ohio, and as an elected member of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes.  Prior to his election to both positions, he served as the Junior Warden and Senior Warden, when HTA’s building mortgage loan got paid off early and in full, Dei gratia, on 8th November 2014, and celebrated in a mortgage “burning” ceremony with Bishop Peter Beckwith (ad patres) during mass.

Dr. Nettey began serving God in lay ministry as an acolyte during Anglican boy’s boarding school, which concluded with serving as the elected head-prefect and president of the Scripture Union student’s Christian fellowship.  As an adult, he has served as an usher, a vestryman, lay Eucharist minister and lay reader, in Episcopal churches in Houston, Texas and Kent, Ohio with his wife, Lisa, who served on vestry and Altar Guild, and their son, Nevin, who also served as an acolyte before attending Kent State; and is now working on the frontlines of public health as an adult.

In 2008, Dr. Nettey continued to serve God in lay ministry at HTA Hudson after resigning from the vestry of Christ Episcopal Church in Kent.  As HTA’s delegate to the ADGL Synod in 2013, Dr. Nettey was elected with the Rev. Dr. Joe Boysel, his rector, as diocesan delegates to ACNA’s 5th Provincial Council at Nashotah House and as provincial delegates to GAFCON II at All Saints in Nairobi, Kenya, with Bishop and Mrs. Roger Ames in 2013.  He was a delegate to GAFCON III, as well as the ACNA Provincial Council in Jerusalem, with Bishop and Mrs. Ron Jackson in June 2018.
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In secular life, Dr. Nettey works as a tenured Professor of Aeronautics in the College of Aeronautics and Engineering at Kent State University.  He also serves as Chairman of the Transportation Research Board’s Standing Committee for Airport Terminals and Ground Access (2020-2023) at the National Academy of Science, Washington, DC, and as President of the Safety Division, Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering (ATMAE).  He previously served as President of University Aviation Association and a Trustee of Council on Aviation Accreditation (dba AABI).
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Mr. Maxwell Seymour

 Maxwell Seymour is currently a member of Saint Anne's in the Field Anglican Church in Madison, Ohio. Although currently retired after 45 years in the Pulp and Paper industry, his work required him to move to many places over the years. Each time he moved, he found a new Anglican church. He has served some 20 years on Vestries and has been the Senior Warden in all but one parish of which he has been part. He truly enjoys serving on Vestries.   He also enjoys reviewing and rewriting By-Laws, Parish Handbooks, and Canons.

He has a great deal of managerial experience, having held many different manager positions over his career. He has been told that he has a skill for problem-solving.  His usual approach is to face the problem directly.  He is a Navy/USMC veteran where he served as a corpsman (1969 – 1973).

Maxwell Seymour would consider it a blessing to be able to serve the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes.