About Me ...

 

Personal Life, Credentials & Experience

The oldest and only daughter in a family of five, I was born in Tilburg and raised in the town of Rijen, both in the Netherlands. At the tender age of 19 I heard God's call: "Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1) This prompting first took me to France and then to Canada to marry a Saskatchewan farmer. Jim – an organic garden seed grower (Prairie Garden Seeds) – and I married on December 1, 1979, and are the proud parents of adult sons David and Daniel, and adult daughter Rachelle. In recent years we have welcomed two lovely daughters-in-law, one great son-in-law and three adorable granddaughters into our beloved family.

 

As a young adult my Christian spirituality was strongly marked by frequent visits to the ecumenical monastic community of Taizé, France. As well, Jim and I share a common experience at Jean Vanier’s l’Arche community with mentally challenged adults in France before we married. Once married and living in rural Saskatchewan, we kept in touch as friends and supporters of various l’Arche communities in Canada. Our commitment to the land was inspired by Gospel values and by the saying to "live simply so that others may simply live." This meant farming/gardening without agricultural chemicals, and living semi-self-sufficiently off the land, without running water and with wood heat, and preserving our year's food supply. This commitment also affected our choice of family planning without artificial hormones; from the early days of our marriage we were involved with Serena Canada as a teacher-couple of Natural Family Planning (Sympto-Thermal Method) and taking our turn to serve on provincial and national Serena boards of directors.

 

Once our three children were school age, and after working for many years as a counselor in a shelter for battered women and children, I enrolled in university studies, focusing on courses in theology, counseling, and liturgy, obtaining a Masters in Theological Studies from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon.

In July 1998 I became the first lay and first female editor of OUR FAMILY Magazine, published by the Missionary Oblates of St. Mary's Province which since has amalgamated into OMI Lacombe Canada. I remained in this position until January 2002 when the magazine was closed down after 53 years of publication. Through my position as editor I served a term as western Vice-President for the Association of Roman Catholic Communicators in Canada and served a term on the National Advisory Board for the Religion & Communications Project at St. Paul's College in Winnipeg. 

 

After working briefly as a Pastoral Associate in a local parish, I was hired by the Saskatoon Catholic Diocese in the area of Scripture Resources, Ministry Development and Parish Renewal. At the same time I offered retreats and programs for women on a freelance basis, through the Battlefords' Catholic Family Services agency and through Queen's House of Retreats in Saskatoon, and served as a supply preacher for many local Protestant churches. 

 

In my 25+ years of ministry experience I have served on the Diocesan Commission for Liturgy,  chaired the deanery liturgy committee, and lead workshops on liturgy, Catholic education, parish mission statements, women's role in ministry, spirituality and ecumenism. I have been a guest-speaker at CWL conventions, Catholic School Trustees Conventions, ACW (Anglican Church Women) deanery meetings, the ELW convention (Evangelical Lutheran Women), the 2000 Calgary Education Conference, Study Days for the Ukrainian Eparchy of Saskatoon, TRACE Conference, Anglican Clergy Retreat in Edmonton, to name a few. 

 

My first book Finding the Treasure Within: A Woman’s Journey into Preaching was published by Novalis in the fall of 2002, with a Foreword by Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI. The book was awarded third place in the category for First Time Authors at the Catholic Press Association at its 2003 convention in Atlanta, GA. My second book was released in the spring of 2007, also published by Novalis. Entitled Catholic Women in Ministry: Changing the Way Things Are, the book shares the experiences, questions and insights of about 26 Catholic women employed in various ministry positions throughout western and northern Canada. Their contributions are woven into composite profiles and engage in lively conversation with the author’s personal story of ministry.  

 

In 2005 we relocated to Humboldt, Saskatchewan. Jim entered a partnership with St. Peter’s Abbey in Muenster (10 km west of Humboldt) for growing garden seeds and assisting the monks to continue their commitment to sustainable and organic agriculture. Currently our daughter Rachelle is in the process of succeeding her father in this noble family enterprise called Prairie Garden Seeds, a development of which we are both immensely proud and for which we are deeply grateful.

 

In March 2014 I completed 7 wonderful years of pastoral ministry in St. Augustine Parish, where I had responsibilities in all areas of adult faith formation (Sacramental Prep sessions with all parents, RCIA, Lay presiders, liturgy, parish website, communications etc.).  have returned to freelance and contract ministry in both Catholic and ecumenical circles.

 

However, a surprising turn of events in early 2015 lead me to transfer my ecclesial belonging to the Anglican tradition. Not completely unexpected, given my on-again off-again courtship with the Anglican Church, but the timing and the way it occurred were not planned -- at least not by  me, but clearly by my Higher Power! Formally received into the Anglican Church at Easter 2016, I have grown an expanded understanding of church beyond denominational boundaries, feasting on the riches of many expressions of God's mission in the world. I have written extensively about my denominational transition on my blog. 

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I completed my Masters in Divinity at Emmanuel St. Chad College in Saskatoon in May 2016. In January 2017 the Bishop assigned me to do pastoral ministry in two parishes (Anglican and Lutheran) in Watrous, SK, on a temporary basis while I completed the final stages of preparing for priestly ordination in the Anglican Church of Canada. On Pentecost 2017 I became an Anglican deacon, and on November 30, 2017 I was ordained an Anglican priest. Amazing, at age 62, to still embark on a new adventure with God and with God's holy people. I continue to serve All Saints Anglican Parish and Our Redeemer's Lutheran Church in Watrous in deep joy and gratitude.

 

Educational Credentials

Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon, SK 
                      Master of Theological Studies (1997)              

Newman Theological College, Edmonton, AB 
College of Emmanuel & St. Chad, Saskatoon, SK
                       Masters of Divinity (2016)

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University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, SK) 
Athabasca University (Athabasca, AB)
University of Waterloo, ON               
                          Arts and Science Program    

 

Loyola House, Guelph, ON (1998)

Queen’s House, Saskatoon, SK (2013-2014)
                       Spiritual Direction Training & Formation

 

Related Experiences and Involvements 

• Member of the Battlefords Ministerial Association (1997-2005), supply preacher in many Protestant churches, and active in all aspects of ecumenical relations;

• Chair of the Battlefords’ deanery liturgy committee (1996-2002), member of Prince Albert Diocesan Commission for Liturgy (1994-2002), member of the interdenominational chaplaincy team
  at the North Battleford Saskatchewan Hospital (1998-2002), western vice-president of ARCCC (Association for Roman Catholic Communicators in Canada, 2000-2002);

• 25 years of involvement (with spouse) in Serena Canada (Natural Family Planning) in various capacities: teacher couple, provincial president couple, and national president couple;

• Board of Directors, Catholic Family Services, North Battleford, SK (1990-1996). 

• Board of Directors for Queen’s House Retreat & Renewal Centre (2005—2010) 

• Board of Directors for Partners Family Services in Humboldt
  (2007—2013) 

• Various Roman Catholic diocesan involvements: Ecumenical Commission, RCIA Committee, Lay Ministry Executive, Discernment Committee on the Permanent Diaconate etc. 

• Coordinator for an ecumenical Women in Ministry network
  (2007—present)

• Author of two books published by Novalis (2002 & 2007).

• Regular contributor to the Prairie Messenger and other publications.

• Supply preacher, retreat and workshop leader at invitation of churches and organizations.

• Member of the Executive of the Humboldt Ministerial Association.

• RC co-chair for Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue in Saskatchewan

• Member of the Programming Team at Queen’s House, Saskatoon.
  
  I'll take the hand of those 
  who don't know where they're going;
  I'll be a personal guide to them;
  directing them through unknown country.
  (Isaiah 41:16-17)  
  
  I will give you a new heart,
  and put a new spirit in you;
  I will remove your heart of stone ...
  (Ezekiel 36:26)