A lifelong Episcopalian, Jim grew up in Williamston, NC, graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and served as an Information Specialist in the U.S. Army stationed at Fort Jackson, SC. The highlight of his Army career was marrying Bonnie, his best friend in high school. Jim and Bonnie have two grown daughters and a granddaughter.

Upon graduation in 1967 from the School of Theology of the University of the South in Sewanee, TN, Jim served parishes in his home Diocese of East Carolina and the Diocese of Maryland. He joined the staff of the Diocese of Maryland as Canon for Ministry, overseeing ordained and lay ministry programs, parish search processes and clergy deployment. He was called back to East Carolina as Rector of St. Anne’s Jacksonville where he officially retired from active parish ministry in 2001.

Moving to Greenville, NC that same year, Jim served in various supply capacities in the greater Greenville area until he and Bonnie moved to Las Vegas in December, 2018. Particularly meaningful was serving as long-term Sunday and Pastoral Care Supply Priest at St. John’s in Grifton , NC, his mother’s home town, where he had often visited relatives as a child.

One of Jim’s primary interests is Creation Care. He sees the natural world as a gift from our Creator and believes that we have a spiritual and moral call to be caretakers of “this fragile earth, our island home.” He especially enjoys listening to music, viewing PBS mystery dramas, and participating in the liturgy at Grace in the Desert. As a favorite activity, Jim and Bonne love exploring our state and national parks, as well the unique desert landscape around Las Vegas.

The Rev. Dr. Jim Wallis is professor emeritus of philosophy and religion at the College of Southern Nevada, and an adjunct professor of philosophy in the Philosophy Department at UNLV. Jim received his M.Div. degree with a special competence in Biblical Studies from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy and religion from the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. Jim has written one book, Post-Holocaust Christianity, and is working on another about religious responses to the Holocaust. He has written many articles on these subjects and presents at professional conferences and other venues. Wallis was ordained as a priest 6-13-1982 in the Diocese of Michigan by Bishop Harry Coleman McGehee, Jr.

Relocating to Las Vegas in 1998, where Wallis taught philosophy and religion at the College of So. Nevada as an Asst. Professor. Fr. Jim transferred canonical residence to Nevada in January 20, 1999 and was a supply priest. He became an Assistant Priest in 2001 and retired in 2019 and moved to Pomona, Ca.

It is always our pleasure to welcome The Rev.Dr. Jim Wallis as visiting clergy.

Sherm Frederick grew up in Glendale, AZ where Sundays were all about sports, not church. Sundays changed when he married the former Christina Secker of Angleton, TX, the daughter of an Episcopal priest. Sherm attended Arizona State University for two years, then joined the Navy where he edited the base newspaper during his Viet Nam era tour of duty in Guam. Returning from the service he enrolled in Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff majoring in journalism. He played championship tennis as singles, doubles and mixed doubles champion in Northern Arizona. In 1976, as a student intern, he covered night cops for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

In 1980, he became editor of the Hawaii Tribune Herald in Hilo and held that position for 5 years. A three-year stint as publisher of the Alamogordo (NM) Daily News, lead him back to Las Vegas as the Editor of the Review-Journal. He subsequently became publisher of the newspaper and president of the Stephens Media Group, which included the Review-Journal and a collection of daily newspapers throughout the country.

In June 2011, he formed a new company named Battle Born Media LLC and purchased the Ely Times and Eureka Sentinel from Stephens Media as well as Mineral County Independent-News in Hawthorne from brothers Tony, Ted and Frank Hughes. He continues to expand his world with new acquisitions. He is active in a variety of charitable and civic groups in Las Vegas, including Rotary and St. Jude's Ranch for Children. Sherm and Christina were founding members of Grace in the Desert.

He was ordained in 1994 and has served Grace as a priest since then. Sherm continues to write an opinion columns, but says he "never, ever" mixes politics with sermons. "Sermons are too important for that." He and Christina have numerous grandchildren and a couple of great grandkids.

Barbara was born and raised in Milwaukee by two loving parents. Her brother Chuck and his wife Diane live in Frankfurt, Ky. Barb has four children from her first marriage: Paula, Jeff, Christine and Brad. Her husband Rhine has three children: Matt, Caroline and Sarah. Together they share 9 grandkids. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Stout in Menominee; Barb move back to Milwaukee; lived in Illinois, Indiana and California where she was a single mom of three teenagers at one time. She met Rhine Preas in Las Vegas and within a year she moved from California to Nevada and became Mrs. Rhine Preas. The Preas' have been married for more than 30 years.

In 1989, a flyer appeared in the Review Journal indicating that a new Episcopal church was forming in Summerlin. Rhine and Barb joined Grace and from the first day, both were “hooked”. He gave up basketball on Sunday mornings and they became deeply involved in the Church. In 1991, the parishioners at Grace called Mrs. Preas to be a Deacon. After consulting with Bishop Zabriski, and a great deal of prayer and soul searching, Barb began her studies. In 1994 she was ordained Deacon; at the same time that Sherman Frederick and John Zaiss were ordained as Priests. Barbara and Rhine have enjoyed being part of the many changes at Grace over the past twenty-seven years. Grace in the Desert continues to be a major force in both their lives and they are "thrilled at the growth they have seen."

Cammie has come to us from the Diocese of Colorado where she was ordained a vocational deacon in 2008. Since that time she has served at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Centennial, CO and also at St. Gabriel the Archangel Episcopal Church in Cherry Hills Village.

Ms. Houpt wore many hats in those churches including establishing and managing a senior’s ministry for socialization, education and community service for active seniors over the age of 60.

She co-founded a non-profit organization to help house homeless families with children, severely handicapped individuals and others who tend to be underserved in the more traditional venues. She organized and managed pastoral care visits as well as the Eucharistic Visitor program. She was a diocesan -wide trainer for that program.

Cammie lived overseas for many years as a result of her husband’s job with the Mobil Oil Corp. She participated in the Church of England in Tripoli, Libya and Medan, North Sumatra. All three (3) of her daughters were born oversea: in Tripoli, Malta and Singapore.

Ms. Houpt returned to the US and began a career—“trying to teach math to inner-city high school kids”. It worked; she served that population for over 20 years. Cammie retired in 2009 pursue her duties as a deacon. She moved to Las Vegas in June 2020 to be near her daughter, son-in-law and 2 little grandsons. She has 7 other grandchildren spread across the US.

Deacon Cammie wasapproved and licensed to serve in the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada at Grace in the Desert Episcopal Church in April 2021. She joined us at a crucial time of transition and the Vestry is exceedingly grateful to God for her presence.

Jim is professor emeritus of philosophy and religion at the College of Southern Nevada, and an adjunct professor of philosophy in the Philosophy Department at UNLV. Jim received his M.Div. degree with a special competence in Biblical Studies from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy and religion from the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. Jim has written one book, Post-Holocaust Christianity, and is working on another on religious responses to the Holocaust. The focus of Jim’s research is in religious pluralism (theologies of religion), the interreligious dialogue, and Holocaust Studies. He has written many articles on these subjects and reads them at professional conferences and other venues. Jim co-taught a class on the history of Jewish-Christian relations with Rabbi Herschel Brooks, D.D. He taught a course with Rabbi Mel Hecht and Imam Dr. Aslam Abdullah called The Abrahamic Faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The course included a trialog between the three participants. Jim also has experience in the Jewish-Christian Dialogue. This was when he was a college chaplain at the University of California, Irvine. His dialogue partner was Marlene Silverman, Jewish chaplain at the university. Jim received a fellowship to participate in the Seminar in Jerusalem, Israel. The National Conference of Christian and Jews, Inc., NY, NY, and the David Hartman Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, Jerusalem, Israel granted the fellowship. The purpose of the seminar was for Christian and Jewish scholars to study together each other’s texts to come to some mutual understanding of the texts’ meaning for both religions’ faith. Jim is a member of the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada. Each fall IFCSN offers a series of forums, 5 panel discussions on pertinent topics, with many religious traditions represented on the panels. Grace in the Desert has hosted some of these forums, and Jim has participated in these fall forums for several years .Recently Jim married Soon Bock Moon Holl. They were colleagues at CSN for many years.