Nancy Sinclair
March 23, 1945 – August 26, 2024
[The Episcopal News] The Rev. Nancy Sinclair, 79, retired vicar of St. Theodore of Canterbury Church, Seal Beach, died Aug. 26. She passed away peacefully in her sleep, surrounded by her family members and loved ones.
Survivors include her husband, Donald, to whom she was married in 1967; her daughters Amy, Molly and Emily; sons Douglas and Noah; and eight grandchildren. Another son, Randy, predeceased her.
Sinclair served at St. Theodore’s Church for eight years before retiring, when she returned to her former church home, St. Wilfrid’s in Huntington Beach, where the then-rector, the late Rev. Canon Charles Sacquety, had been her mentor as she explored her calling to ordained ministry. Prior to ordination Sinclair had served St. Wilfrid’s as senior warden and vestry member. In 2018, during a difficult period of transition, the parish asked Sinclair to serve as pastoral care director. She shared in Sunday worship and led the Wednesday midweek Eucharist. According to her family, she said, “It is truly a blessing to serve this congregation in whatever way I can.”
Sinclair graduated from the Claremont School of Theology with a master of divinity degree, and was ordained by Bishop J. Jon Bruno as a deacon in 2004 and as a priest in 2005. She was a religious education teacher at St. Mark’s School, Downey (now closed), and assisted at the church on Sundays.
Sinclair also served for four years on the board of directors of Holy Family Adoption & Foster Care, an institution of the Diocese of Los Angeles. She was active for some 30 years in the Cursillo movement, serving on its secretariat several times both as layperson and priest.
A native of southern New Jersey, she attended college in Delaware and was graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College. According to her family she was a mother figure to countless children. “She has been characterized with having a big heart and welcoming spirit,” they wrote in a biographical sketch. “The ripple effect of her love & spirit will continue to touch the hearts of all she met.”