We should not be surprised that the stories of each of us connected with this venture share a certainly affinity. The notion that God might still be doing something in what ++Michael Ramsey styled this provisional way of being a Catholic Christian is renewed again and again with every contributor’s story. My story is as varied as the others. But it is because of and through this Anglican instance of the Church that the friends I’ve made include some of the other contributors in this undertaking.
My faith was formed by my faithful, Christian parents in southern Pennsylvania. We worshiped in the Anabaptist tradition (of the Brethren in Christ variety) into which generations of my maternal grandmother’s family were born. The fact that I am presently situated in the Anglican Communion seems a radical departure from Anabaptism, but it was there that I first saw a real vision of world-wide Christianity, an insistence on the profound distinctiveness of the Christian community, and a desire to take seriously radical Kingdom that Jesus preached. In fact, I think it was the Anabaptist’s willingness to face the hard words of Jesus regarding violence that later made it seem obvious to take seriously the sacramental language of John 6 when I encountered Anglicanism.
I studied English literature at Wheaton College (IL) and it was there that I was exposed to sacramental Christianity for the first time. I was part of that long history of unsuspecting evangelicals who entered Wheaton, only to find themselves Catholic Christians on the other end. I continue to describe my first encounter with Anglican worship as though I had been “born again” again, and it is language that will always be apropos. My Anglican fellowship in college was in the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) and the decision to be received into the Episcopal Church was not one I took lightly. That parish holds an unusually large number of godly saints who took care to form me and pray for me and I will always be deeply grateful to them. I had been formed in my thinking about the Church to the degree that knew I wasn’t free to escape the messiness of the Anglican Communion and The Episcopal Church. It was also during this time that I encountered Ephraim Radner, whose vision of the Church was so alarmingly honest and so rooted in Scripture and the tradition that I couldn’t dismiss it. And so here I am.
The call to Christian ministry has been strong for much of my life. My parents knew this and opened up to me the expansive nature of the Church by taking our family twice while I was still a child to live with Brethren in Christ missionaries in Zimbabwe. This encounter marked me and gave me an experience of a Christian faith that was at the same time familiar and so yet so otherworldly. I had a sense that this would not be my last encounter with Christianity in Africa. As I grew as an Anglican, my vocation found a shape in the priesthood and so I studied theology at Duke University Divinity School. During that time, I was brought into the Diocese of Dallas by Bishop James Stanton who kindly nurtured me through the discernment process.
After we moved to Texas, I served as deacon and chaplain at St John’s Episcopal Church and School in east Dallas. I was ordained a priest in May of 2006 and am presently the Curate for Christian Education at Church of the Incarnation, Dallas, the Ecumenical Officer for the Diocese of Dallas and a member of the diocesan Executive Council. I also serve on ARC-USA, the official dialogue between The Episcopal Church and the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB).
I am married to Kristen, my wise friend and the love of my life. We have been blessed with a beautiful daughter, Claire Madeleine and a son, Isaac.
