Pastor Luther Zeigler

Pastor Luther can be reached directly at PastorLuther@htelc.com, or call the Church Office at (603) 436-1704. For Pastoral Emergencies, please leave a voicemail and your phone number.

The Reverend Luther Zeigler is an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Massachusetts. He lives in Manchester-by-the-Sea, a small coastal town on Cape Ann, with his wife (Pat), where he has for over a decade been the priest-in-residence at Emmanuel Church, a summer chapel near Singing Beach.

From 2011 to 2018, Luther also served as the Episcopal Chaplain at Harvard University. For the last three years of his time at Harvard, he was elected by his peers to be the President of the Harvard Chaplains and was also the founding Chair of the Board of Religious, Spiritual and Ethical Life at Harvard, a body that works with the Memorial Church, its Pusey Minister, and the Faculty Committee on Religion to oversee religious life at Harvard. Upon his retirement from Harvard, he was named the Episcopal Chaplain Emeritus at the University.

Since coming to Massachusetts in 2011, Luther has also been active on non-profit Boards. At Harvard, he was a Trustee of Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA), the umbrella organization that oversees Harvard’s community service programs for its students. He was also an original member of the Advisory Board of Y2Y Harvard Square, a shelter for homeless youth organized and now operated by Harvard students under the auspices of PBHA. More recently, Luther was for many years the Chairman and President of Bethany House of Prayer, a center for spiritual direction and religious retreat in Arlington, MA.

Before coming to Massachusetts, Luther was Senior Chaplain at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac, MD, where he chaired the philosophy and religion department, taught courses in ethics, biblical studies and social justice, and led numerous student mission trips, including ones to Haiti and South Africa. Before St. Andrew’s, he was a chaplain at Washington Episcopal School in Bethesda, MD, and at the St. Alban’s School for Boys in Washington, DC.

Luther was educated at Oberlin College (B.A., 1980), Stanford University (M.A., 1982, J.D., 1985), and Virginia Theological Seminary (M.Div., 2006). He also spent a year studying theology, the Bible and church history at the University of St. Andrew’s in Scotland from 1978-79.

For over two decades prior to his ordination to the priesthood in 2007, Luther practiced appellate law at a major Washington law firm, Crowell & Moring LLP, where he was ultimately elected to the firm’s Management Board. In addition to his corporate clients, Luther had an active public service practice, particularly in the areas of civil rights and advocating for the homeless. He represented a wide range of pro bono clients, including the Children’s Defense Fund, the Volunteers of America, the NAACP, the Georgetown University Sex Discrimination Clinic, a veteran’s disability rights group, as well as numerous other public interest groups and indigent individuals.

The story of Luther’s transition from big law to the priesthood was featured in The American Lawyer and in a film segment on Bloomberg News’ series Stealth Lawyer.

Although an Episcopal priest, Luther comes from a long line of Lutherans on his father’s side of the family and was baptized at Zion Lutheran Church in Newville, PA. This is not Luther’s first leadership position in a Lutheran church. Before coming to Holy Trinity, Luther served for about a year as Interim Pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Gloucester, MA.

Luther and Pat have two adult daughters and three grandchildren. Their elder daughter (Kate) lives with her husband (Hunter) and their daughter (Emerson) in Essex, MA. Their younger daughter (Ann) lives with her husband (Justin) and their two sons (Jack and Ben) in Falmouth, Maine.