Meet Fr. Ed Pickup

Ed Pickup grew up in Charlotte on Beverly Drive, across from Christ Church. After graduating from Myers Park High School, he received Bachelor of Arts (1974) and Juris Doctor (1976) degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He practiced real estate and bankruptcy law in Charlotte for nine years (1976-1985) before being called to the ministry. Ed received a Masters in Divinity, cum laude, from Nashotah House (1988), a small Episcopal seminary in Wisconsin, and then served as Curate at St. Mary’s in High Point. NC for three years. He followed his mentor and friend, Bishop Frank Vest, to Southern Virginia where Ed served as Rector of Emmanuel Church in Franklin for almost twenty-seven years.

In the Diocese of Southern Virginia, Ed served on the Commission on Constitution and Canons, Executive Board (Executive Council), Standing Committee, Chair of the Liturgical Commission, Chair of Diocesan Board of Examining Chaplains, Diocesan Spiritual Director for Cursillo, President of the Disciplinary Board, and Co-Chair of the Talbot Hall and Diocesan Relocation Committees (two linked committees which found a creative restoration and re-use for an 18th century historic river-front property and relocated the Diocesan Offices to new and more efficient facilities). For the national church, he served for ten years as a Reader of General Ordination Examinations. He was a nominee for Suffragan Bishop of Southern Virginia in 2001.

Passionate about church music, Ed has served as Chaplain for forty-nine Royal School of Church Music Summer Training Courses in North and South Carolina, Georgia, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Montreal. He served for six years as a Board Member of the Royal School of Church Music in America and served as the board’s Chaplain for many years afterwards. In recognition of this, Ed was made an honorary Associate of the RSCM at a ceremony in Peterborough Cathedral in 2011.

After retiring in July of 2017, on August 15th, Ed married The Rev. Canon Earnest N. Graham (Diocesan Canon Missioner). In the bargain, Earnest gained two dogs (Rory and Bebe) and Ed gained a wonderful twenty-year-old stepson (Evan). In September 2017, they moved back on Beverly Drive.

In 2018, Ed served as an Interim Assistant to the Rev. Jim Croom at St. Alban’s Church (Davidson). Since then, he has served as Interim Rector of St. Andrew’s (Greensboro, 2019), St. Mark’s (Huntersville, 2020- 2021), and St. Paul’s (Monroe 2022-2023). He finds interim work to be rewarding, especially the idea that he is helping congregations navigate through some of the more challenging times of their histories. He is excited to be helping Fr. Greg a bit, while Rev. Cat is on medical maternity leave.