Clergy & Staff

Rev. Charlotte Johnson

Priest-in-charge

As far back as she can remember, Charlotte has felt called to help people of all ages grow in their awareness of God’s love and in responding with an active life of caring for others.Recognizing the sacred threads woven through her story, she discerned a call to become a spiritual director and, eventually, an Episcopal priest. She graduated from the interfaith Spiritual Direction Institute at Mercy Center (Burlingame, CA) in 2010 and was ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Diocese of California in 2016.

Charlotte grew up in Minnesota and lived in the San Francisco Bay Area until she moved to Deerfield, Illinois in 2021. These days, she is enjoying exploring trails around New Lenox with Louie, her quirky beagle mix dog.

Fun facts about Charlotte

  • Charlotte always has at least three books going at any one time and reviews pre-release books online for fun.

  • She was a German major in college and studied in Freiburg, West Germany before the Berlin Wall came down.

  • She taught herself to knit and then taught classes and private lessons in a yarn shop in California.

Lauren Meder

PARISH ADMINISTRATOR

Lauren lives in Manhattan with her husband and their four boys. She has over 10 years’ experience working as an Administrative Assistant for the State of Illinois and 4 years’ experience working for Cook County as a Clerk. Her passion in the workforce has been problem solving. Lauren enjoys keeping up with technology any chance she has, her favorite classes were Microsoft SharePoint and Introduction to SQL.

FUN facts about LAUREN

  • Lauren has 1 dog, a few reptiles, a lot of fish, and chickens.

  • Her favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz (1939), and her favorite book is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

  • Lauren has a love for all types of music. She played the violin for years growing up and is re-learning again, along with teaching herself guitar.

Chrissy Putlak

minister of music

Chrissy started working at Grace Episcopal Church as the Minister of Music in February of 2018. She started taking piano lessons when she was 7 years old and has been playing ever since. She received her Bachelor’s in Music Education from VanderCook College of Music in 2017 and currently teaches General Music to kindergarten through third grade in Park Forest. When she’s not teaching or playing, she loves to spend time with her friends and family.

FUN FACTS about chrissy

  • Chrissy learned how to play 19 instruments in college - the ones she excels at include piano, percussion, and bassoon.

  • ”Lord of the Rings” are her all-time favorite movies and book series.

  • Chrissy loves plants and gardening - although she is new to it, she loves planting flowers (or tomatoes) and taking care of her many houseplants.