Born in the San Francisco Bay area of California at the tail end of the post war baby boom. He and his family moved to Colorado when he was two years old, so he remembers very little about California. 

Their family settled in Arvada, a suburb on the northwest corner of Denver. Their family owned a home for 59 years, where his mother just recently sold it. A 1976 Graduate of the Arvada High School. He began his secondary education studying Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado, receiving his BA in 1980. 

Moving to Burlington, VT he worked for IBM in Essex Junction. While living in Vermont, he was baptized into the Episcopal Church at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul and began volunteering with the campus chaplaincy at UVM. 

After two years at IBM, he resigned and enrolled in the Harvard Divinity School, earning his Masters of Divinity in 1985. He was ordained as a deacon in the Episcopal Church in June of 1986, and a priest in January of 1987. While at HDS, he and Shelley Palumbo were married.

After ordination, he served as the assistant to the Rector at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Attleboro, MA for five years. During this time, their two daughters were born; Madeline and Elizabeth. After All Saint’s, he served as the Interim Rector at Christ Church, Lonsdale, RI, and at the Church of the Redeemer, in Providence, RI.

In November of 1992 he took the position of Rector at the Church of the Advent in Crestwood, Missouri (a suburb of St. Louis), where he served for 26 years. 

During that time, he completed his PhD in Historical Theology at the St. Louis University in 2012. While Rector at Advent, he also served as the Dean of the Episcopal School for Ministry in the Diocese of Missouri, and as an adjunct faculty at the Eden Theological Seminary, teaching Ethics and Anglican Studies.

Their daughters both graduated from high school and attended college while living in Missouri. Madeline now has a PhD in mathematics, working for a wind energy company in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Lizzy is finishing her PhD in anthropology at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. 

Following his retirement in July of 2019, he and Shelley relocated to Syracuse, NY to be closer to her parents. Most recently he has served in the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, at St. David’s Episcopal Church in DeWitt, New York as their Priest-In-Charge since August 11th, 2019, with the understanding that the parish could call him as Rector after a year as Priest-In-Charge. This has been a blessing from God to us. 

Rev. Handschy is a scholar of Historical Theology, bringing a deeper understanding of spirituality, science, and the bible together. He worked with his previous parish to start many community initiatives such as a community garden and senior programs.

 Throughout our current health pandemic, Rev. Handschy has maintained daily morning prayer online, as well as building a team of parishioners to put together a Sunday Morning Service on-line via Zoom and Facebook. 

This endeavor has brought St. David’s into a new level of ministry. Following the application and receipt of a technology grant from the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, we were able to obtain modern, professional equipment and now are able to permanently offer live streaming of our 10 a.m. Morning Service, Bible Study, and other events of significance. 

We look forward to continuing our journey together, embracing Jesus and growing in spirit as a community at St. David’s and beyond. 

As St. David’s motto says: 

‟ Welcoming everyone to walk through our doors on the journey to Christ. ”