Your Catechist: 

Mr. Rory Chalcraft

Allow me to introduce myself. I've been a part of St. Bartholomew's Parish since spring 1998, when my family moved here from Arlington Virginia that same year.  I have been a catechist at St. Bart's for nine years (this will be my ninth year) - and for all but one of those years I've taught 8th grade.

You might also see me singing in the choir on Sundays at the 11 AM Mass ... I'm the really really tall one in the back row.

I work for a rather large financial institution - as a Senior Instructional Designer, which means that I design and develop training programs for the employees of the company.  My work focuses on web-based training, so I am constantly online with designing and programming a wide number of Internet-based training programs.  I also head up several research projects for the company about how to best use technology for the purpose of daily training inside the organization.

Before moving to New Jersey (which is where I grew up - I'm originally from Sussex County), I studied music and theater in college (attended Catholic University of America) and worked as a musician for many years (actually managed to earn a living doing it for awhile).  Music has always been a part of my life. So, I feel very blessed to be able to sing with such a fantastic choir here at St. Bart's. And I've just got back into working in theater - where I've taken on some work as a Music Director.

My wife, Elena, and I live in South River; and we have one son.

My Blogs:

To Know, Serve and Love

Learn-Learn-Learn (this is my professional blog)

You can also follow me on

Twitter ... rchalc

Facebook ... Rory Chalcraft

De.licio.us ... rcchalc