Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Episcopal priest Altagracia Pérez-Bullard serves as the canon for congregational vitality in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Through church leadership development, both lay and clergy, she assists congregations as they seek to engage and collaborate with their changing contexts to bring new life to their communities in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Canon Pérez-Bullard has served in the Church for 30 years as a community leader, youth minister and priest in the Dioceses of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. As the rector in Los Angeles of St. Philip’s, Los Angles and Holy Faith, Inglewood, she led multicultural, bilingual congregations engaged in serving and ministering to the wider community. She also served as dean and director of the Episcopal Urban Intern Program. In 2010, she was selected as an ECF Fellow.

Altagracia has brought leadership to the issues of HIV/AIDS, youth violence, worker justice and living wage, health disparities in communities of color, housing and community empowerment. In each of these areas she has sought to build bridges and create alliances between communities across lines of difference, whether they be characterized by race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, or physical and mental abilities. She worked with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), Jubilee Consortium, Coalition L.A., UNITE-HERE, Housing Authority for the City of Los Angeles, and President Clinton’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. In the Church, she has served as a deputy to the General Convention, on the Program, Budget and Finance Committee, as CREDO faculty, as well as on Diocesan Standing Committee, and other Diocesan Commissions.

Canon Perez-Bullard holds a PhD in Practical Theology from Claremont School of Theology, CA, and an MDiv and STM from Union Theological Seminary, New York and BS in Educational Psychology from New York University. She and her wife Cynthia Bullard-Perez enjoy the blessings and challenges that are their children Veronica, Immanuel, Joshua, and Jasmine.