About Suzi

The Rev. Canon Suzann (Suzi ) Holding was ordained to the priesthood in 1999. St. Mark’s Glen Ellyn was her sponsoring parish and she has stayed connected to the parish throughout her ordained ministry.  Suzi spent seventeen years in sales and marketing before she left the business world to attend Seabury Western Theological Seminary where she received her M.Div.  After her ordination to holy orders, Suzi served as associate rector at Trinity, Wheaton and rector at Church of Our Saviour, Elmhurst before moving to San Diego to work on the bishop’s staff as the Canon to the Ordinary.  Missing the Midwest (but not the weather!) she returned to Illinois in November 2013 and shortly thereafter began a new position as Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program and Lifelong Theological Education with Bexley Seabury Theological Seminary. After four years Suzi left academia to return to full time congregational ministry, particularly transition ministry, and retired in 2020, just before COVID shutdown.

Suzi has been involved in various diocesan and national church ministries and has a strong interest in leadership, formation, congregational development and global ministry. These days she is particularly interested in the relationship between creative practices and spirituality.

In addition to her M.Div. Suzi has a B.A. in Political Science from DePauw University and a Masters in International Management from what is now known as the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University.

After living in Glen Ellyn, Illinois for 30 years, Suzi became a resident of Oak Park in 2017, the beginning of a new chapter in her life when she remarried in 2017 (at St. Mark’s!). She loves welcoming her two adult children and her grandson home for visits and enjoys the companionship of her sweet dog Stella. In spite of not having a green thumb like her mother, Suzi enjoys gardening as well as reading detective novels, going to the theater and the symphony, traveling to new places and revisiting old favorites and hanging out at a beach…any beach…whenever she can.