Grace Episcopal Church has announced that its search to find a new Rector to replace the retiring Rev. William R. Harper is over.

The Rev. Tommy J. Dillon II, currently Rector of St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco, California, will become the new Rector of Grace Episcopal Church.

Rev. Dillon will take over as Rector on July 15, Grace Church announced Sunday.

Rev. Harper, Grace’s outgoing pastor, will retire on Sunday, April 26 after 30 years as an ordained minister of the Episcopal Church and 20 years as Rector of Grace.

Church officials said the Vestry voted unanimously to call Rev. Dillon after receiving the same endorsement from the church’s Call Committee.

Sunday’s announcement caps a long search for a replacement for Rev. Harper, who announced plans to retire last year.

The Grace search process was conducted with guidance from the Diocese of Olympia while Rev. Harper was completing his time at Grace.

During the initial step, a Profile Committee comprised of Grace members gathered information from the parish about the skills and gifts that Grace was seeking in its new Rector. The Profile was distributed nationally through the Episcopal Church. The Call Committee was formed to review applications from interested candidates and to discern who was to be called as the next Rector.

Rev. Dillon, 45, stood out from a list of strong candidates, church officials said, and has the experience and gifts to be Grace’s next Rector.

Grace Church said Rev. Dillon has earned a reputation for creative, inclusive and inspirational ministry, which is grounded in a powerful faith. The members of the Call Committee were impressed with Rev. Dillon’s preaching, and also with unique and effective ways that his church has reached beyond its walls to serve those in the community.

He will be leaving his current post in San Francisco, where he has served as Rector for the last nine years, and will move to Bainbridge Island with his dog, Joshua, in spring or summer.

Prior to becoming Rector at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco, Rev. Dillon was a part-time pastor for five years in his home state of Louisiana at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, outside Baton Rouge.

He graduated from Louisiana State University in 1992 and received his Master of Divinity degree from the Divinity School at Yale University in 1995. He earned his Master of Sacred Theology from the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in 1996. He was ordained in 2003.

Grace Episcopal Church was established on Bainbridge in 1992, and the church noted that under the leadership of Rev. Harper, Grace has become a lively, inclusive congregation of more than 400 families.