Los Ranchos Welcomes Andi Saccoccio as New Executive Presbyter

by Courtney Ellis

In my hour-long conversation with Andi Saccoccio, our new Executive Presbyter, I learned three things: one, she is full of joy, energy, and good humor; two, she is a person of deep faith and insight; and three, our Presbytery is going to be in great hands! Join me in getting to know Andi Saccoccio as we welcome her to Los Ranchos.

Born in Washington D.C. and raised in Annapolis, Maryland, Andi Saccoccio (Sa-CO-she-oh) is a child of the church. Raised in a Catholic family, she grew up with a vibrant desire to learn more about the work of God in the world.

After graduating from college with a degree in exercise science with a minor in deaf education and teacher certification, she began work at various schools in the D.C. area. In 1991 she was invited to join InterVarsity staff and began serving in campus ministry in New England schools, from Holy Cross to Mount Holyoke to Smith, Harvard, and Tufts.

One of the chapters she led was comprised of Black students of various cultural backgrounds , which led her to a deeper understanding of privilege and challenged her to learn to see what she didn’t have to notice because she is white.

“That was really profound for me,” said Saccoccio. “What privilege allows you not to see.” During her time with InterVarsity, she began her M.Div. through Fuller Seminary where she “crammed three years into seven.” Studying remotely, Saccoccio eventually came to the point where she needed to do a residency. Providentially, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church was doing a recruiting tour at the same time.

While it was the free lunch that got her in the door, the interview showed both parties that they would be a great match, and soon Saccoccio was on her way to Menlo Park, California to serve Menlo Park Pres, which at the time was PCUSA.

Noted Saccoccio, “For 10 years the PCA supported my ministry with InterVarsity, but I was not shy to ask questions. It was important for me to learn how to walk with someone in disagreement without cutting them off, so I stayed with them even though I knew I would join the PC(USA) when I left IVCF staff.”

The questions Saccoccio was asking the PCA largely centered on the role of women in ministry. “Why was it okay for me to teach college men, but not if they were part of my church?” she wondered.

At Menlo Park, Saccoccio started in small groups ministry before being asked to overhaul congregational care. After she’d completed that, the church moved her to spiritual formation and made her a teaching specialist.

After several years at Menlo, Saccoccio really missed the vibrancy of working with university students. She moved to serve as a chaplain at Whitworth College.

“I had just a blast with that,” she said. “I got pulled into a Jan-term class every other year in South Africa where we looked at the interplay of how the government, the Press, and the church worked together to address Apartheid. It was that study of faith and social justice that led me to the position with International Justice Mission in D.C. I was really attracted to that because it allowed me to look into the interplay between social justice and faith.”

Back in D.C., Saccoccio ended up as the National Director of Student Mobilization for IJM.

“I got to speak at varying schools, from grade school to grad school, really all around the world, to teach about the intersection of social justice and faith,” she said. “I loved it, except I was on the road 14 days out of every month.”

Eventually the pace of travel caught up with her, and she moved back to California to work as an interim employee with Oasis International, a ministry working to prevent human trafficking along the I-5 corridor. When Oasis hired a long-term Executive Director, Saccoccio moved to serve as Executive Pastor at University Presbyterian in Seattle.

“I oversaw eight different departments,” she said, including a time of transition between one senior pastor and the next. Following her time at University Pres, Saccoccio moved to the Seattle School of Theology & Psychology.

“It was at that time that I began to marry strains of things that started to come together,” noted Saccoccio. “There was a string of understanding about race and racial identity. Why hasn’t racial reconciliation made a difference? Why haven’t we made any progress?” In addition to studying issues of race more deeply, she also dug into trauma theory.

“I was thinking about my work as a chaplain and the role that trauma plays in people’s stories,” she said. “It becomes the role of a pastor or chaplain to help people unravel their stories. This was what compelled me to begin my doctoral work.” Saccoccio began her doctoral studies at George Fox University focusing on moral injury and shame as a trauma response.

Next, she began work at the Seattle Humane Society because, as she noted, “I wanted to practice!” Saccoccio enjoyed the experience of working in a non-Christian environment. She also loved working on a grant to support the Latino communities in White Center, spending time conducting interviews and focus groups “to better understand the disconnect between the LatinX community needs and the ways we were going about trying to meet them.”

“Eventually, I realized I wanted to get back to what I was most called to,” said Saccoccio. Her calling? “To better equip the church to engage the intersection of social justice and faith.” There was an opportunity to work at Sojourners with a Lilly Grant to help study these things.

After each of these ministries, traveling from coast to coast and even to South Africa, what brings Saccoccio to us here in Los Ranchos?

“As the grant was coming to an end, someone asked, ‘Have you thought about transitional ministry?’” said Saccoccio. “I was open to the idea, so I went to the training and that’s where I met Tom Cramer and Gail Stearns and so many other people, and they asked ‘Have you thought about being an EP?’ So after a couple of conversations, I decided to give it a thought.”

The rest, as they say, is history. Or at least pre-history, as we wait to begin our shared ministry together with Saccoccio here in Orange County. She can’t wait to get started.

“I want to be in a position where my experience and my passions to help the church be what it is called to be can marry the social justice call with the call of the Gospel,” said Saccoccio. “At Sojourners we talked about civic discipleship, the notion that following Jesus has profound social, political, and economic implications. Essentially, that in the US engaging our civic opportunities is a critical way to fulfill God’s call to justice and righteousness. How can we be a source of healing? So that was my hope in applying for this role.”

Saccoccio comes to us with an open heart, eager to get started.

“I’m really excited about the diversity of the Presbytery,” she said. “I think that has some incredible opportunities as well as challenges. Those are a microcosm of what we’re facing in our culture. Part of the work we have to do is to recognize that, ‘We can’t just make a bigger table.’ We have to rethink, ‘What does it mean for us to be a multiethnic community and make space for other cultural ways of being?’”

Saccoccio comes to us with her beloved kayak and her half-Border-Collie Bodhi, named after a popular beer at Georgetown Brewing in Seattle. When asked how we might welcome her, she said she’s still looking for a place to live.

“I’m going to land in an AirBnB in Orange for the first bit, but after these three months I’ll need something more permanent,” she said. Beyond that, she is hoping to visit as many churches as she can early on in her tenure.

“I’d love to meet with pastors,” she said. “It’s helpful to talk to Sessions. I look at my role as, ‘How can I help you? Resource you? Set a block for you so you can accomplish the kingdom’s goals here?’”

She and her sister are in the process of obtaining dual citizenship in Italy because of their Italian heritage and her favorite Scriptures are the resurrection stories from the Gospels.

“I love them. Mary, who is disappointed and grieving, the disciples who are afraid, Thomas who is doubting, and Peter who feels like a failure. I feel like those stories are what it’s like to be a real disciple.”

Andi Saccoccio officially begins as the Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of Los Ranchos on January 15.

Courtney Ellis, Associate Pastor at Presbyterian Church of the Master in Mission Viejo, is an author and storyteller. Courtney reports on the presbytery’s mission partnerships.

Courtney’s latest book is Looking Up: A Birders Guide to Hope Through Grief, published by InterVarsity Press.