Where the Spirit moves you

Susan Dyer was ordained as a vocational deacon in Colorado in 2000. Dyer worked in this position in the larger suburban Denver area helping out as a hospice chaplain, hospital chaplain and homeless shelter aide working to bring the needs of the world to the church and taking the gospel outside the church.

Dyer and her husband, Steve, then began a seven year project building a house in Saratoga. The couple finally moved into that house in 2010.

During the build, Dyer was contemplating retirement, but visited with the newly consecrated Bishop of Wyoming. During that meeting the Bishop told Dyer that he never would have ordained her as a deacon-that she was a priest.

Dyer then went back to the Bishop in Colorado and he told Dyer that, as Dyer related, "just because they need a priest and you think you should be a priest doesn't mean that's your calling."

Dyer then underwent further discernment with deacons and priests in Colorado who agreed that Dyer was, and always should have been, a priest.

Returning to Wyoming, the Bishop said he wanted to ordain her as quickly as possible because "this lovely little church (St. Barnabas) had been without clergy for a number of years." The Bishop also asked Dyer to go through the Iona School of Theology in Wyoming.

Dyer then went through three more years of training while already being ordained a priest. During the interview, Dyer listed the many years of training she had gone through up to that point, but said about two years ago she received a calling to become a Spiritual Director.

Spiritual direction involves more of a one-on-one exploration of God's journey where a priest is more involved with a larger congregation.

Since being certified as a Spiritual Director in April, Dyer said she is already walking with six individuals.

Referrals may come through a personal question or a church referral. Dyer said, as a general rule, these contacts are made once a month for an hour. Dyer added that she is currently working with an individual in North Carolina with whom she video chats on that type of a schedule.

Dyer added that this type of work gives her the opportunity to get more intimately involved with a lone individual-with the added benefit of being able to spend more time traveling and to be with her family. Since her father died in January, Dyer said she feels the need to be closer to family.

Since she is no longer affiliated with only one church, she feels more able to connect with a larger diversity of audience saying, "I am finding, in at least my work, I am able to connect with a Buddhist, a Native American spirituality and more."

Though Dyer is not leaving town she is leaving leadership of St. Barnabas.

Dyer said she has also been doing grief counseling in Saratoga and, since she has been asked to continue those efforts, she plans to continue doing that.

A Long-Held Wish Fulfilled for Hotchkiss

Dyer said that both her and newly-ordained priest Margaret "Peggy" Hotchkiss work really well together and that their gifts are complimentary.

Years ago Dyer asked Hotchkiss if she had ever thought about being a priest. Hotchkiss said she replied, "only since I was 10 years old."

Hotchkiss has been in the Saratoga area for 30 years, but had been gone for the school year for 12 years before she returned full time in 2013.

At the time Hotchkiss' husband, Burke, had a heart attack in 2014, the Bishop asked the then worship leader and organist if she would consider becoming a priest.

After a lengthy illness, Hotchkiss went through the discernment process and began taking classes at the Iona School of Theology in Casper in 2016.

Hotchkiss recently graduated after completing classes and going through internships-including an internship in Medicine Bow.

Hotchkiss has been working as a transitional deacon and filling in for Dyer for some time now and was ordained at St. Barnabas at 5 p.m. on Friday, July 12.

The new priest will also be a grandmother as of press time with a cesarean planned for her daughter, Eliza, on July 14.

Hotchkiss looks forward to celebrating the Eucharist and remembers a time before women were allowed to even be acolytes saying, "We couldn't even go behind the altar rail, and I wanted to go behind the rail so badly. It was driving me crazy. My brother could go up there and I couldn't. I knew there was something wonderful going on up there and I wanted to be a part of it."

The new leader of St. Barnabas will now not only be fulfilling a long held dream, but hopes to make a difference in her congregation's lives.