A Presbyterian Walks Into an Episcopal Cathedral …

Our new Pastor for Digital Ministry, the Rev. Jo Nygard Owens, recently shared her spiritual autobiography with members of the Cathedral family. 

But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. Isaiah 43:1-2

These verses are the heart of the passage I picked for my ordination more than 16 years ago. They remind me that we are all called, beloved, and never abandoned by God. They speak to me not of the rosy path set aside for all who follow God’s way, but of God’s presence through the inevitable turbulent waters. While every easy stretch of path is appreciated, it is the times of turbulence—what we learn during and after these periods—that shape who we are.

In high school, it was my dream to one day be a professional dancer, and while I had a decent amount of talent and a strong drive to work toward that goal, my body had different ideas. In four years of high school, I navigated three reconstructive knee surgeries and a debilitating nervous system disease that affected my knees. Some days I had to miss school because I couldn’t walk.

It was in those difficult years that I turned to God and my church for support. I learned that God could take my anger, and in so doing grant me peace after the storm. I learned that in serving others I focused less on my own issues which in turn diminished my emotional pain. I learned what the quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi meant, “For it is in giving that we receive.”

Those years also brought about the first whispers of God’s call on my life. I felt called to serve on both my church’s and my Presbytery’s youth council, eventually moderating both groups and co-directing my first retreats. I was ordained as a youth elder at 17 and faithfully attended session meetings each month. As I transitioned from high school to college, I found myself as part of a keynote team for Montreat Youth Conference and as a recreation leader for Montreat Middle School Conference.

In college, I worked as a youth director for a local church, and I got to put into practice all that I had learned in my high school days. I also continued to participate in leadership for youth retreats around the southeast as both a keynote speaker and a recreation leader.

It was in my final year of college that nudges of going to seminary floated around me, and I started at Columbia Theological Seminary six weeks after I graduated from college. After graduating seminary, I received a call to be the associate for youth and young adults at a church in Raleigh, NC. During that call, I also got married and gave birth to my first child.

Three years into my first call my husband BJ, an Episcopal priest, was called to be rector of a church in Greensboro, NC. By that point we’d discovered that due to the night and weekend commitments of two ministers, we had too little time together as a family, so I took a step back from serving as a pastor.

During this time I started my work in church communications. I appreciated working in a church, but also leaving it behind when the day was over so I could focus on my family. Three years into my time as a church communicator, I once again felt God’s pull for me to serve as a pastor. I was subsequently called to be an associate pastor at a local church and little did I know that I was about to hit turbulent waters once again.

Only a few months after starting my new call, I became sick. It took five months of pain and exhaustion before I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis and fibromyalgia, and I had to learn a whole new way to live. After struggling to balance ministry, family and my health for almost four years, I eventually left that call and went back to the communications side of church work. A little over a year later, our family moved to Cleveland for my husband’s new call.

I continued doing contract communications work, and mid-2020 I started my business Vibrant Church Communications. My health continued to worsen, so I took advantage of the world-class healthcare surrounding me. Through many doctors and tests we discovered I’d been misdiagnosed for almost decade, and I ended up getting sicker before I could get well. I spent three months unable to work, another three months doing a minimum to get by, and over the course of the next year I worked hard to regain my health.

During this time, I became involved with the Second Breath Center whose work is based in the Christian wisdom tradition. Their motto, “Great outer work comes from great inner work” resonated with me, and I dove into all they had to offer. I found the more I pause to feel my connection with God in simple, everyday moments, the more I’m able to feel God’s presence and grace in the turbulent times.

In the spring on 2023, I recognized it was time for me to return once again to church work. Nothing excited me until I saw the posting for Pastor for Digital Ministry at Washington National Cathedral. This is the job I’d been dreaming of ever since my first position as a communications director, and serving in this role at the Cathedral is a dream come true.

I look forward to all the ways I can connect with the Cathedral congregation both near and far—be it over Zoom, in person, or via a digital platform—and for them to connect to each other. Being the church doesn’t just happen in a building, and the more we are connected the stronger the body of Christ becomes.