The Fine Art of Being a Christian

Meet St. Stephen’s

Throughout our process of discussing who we are at St. Stephen’s, where we hope to go as a congregation, and what qualities we seek in a new rector, many parishioners repeatedly described our congregation as a “family,” with each person playing a unique and valuable role in our church family’s life together. So, in addition to describing the communal aspects of our congregation, we have decided to include several brief personal profiles of various members of St. Stephen’s to illustrate the many ways people of our congregation are living out their faith both within our church and in the world around us.

It is unusual for a church to have an “Artist in Residence.” It is even more unusual for a church to have an Artist in Residence who is a licensed lay preacher, and who has taken vows in the Third Order of the Society of St. Francis.

St. Stephen’s is blessed to count Janet, who is all of these things, as part of our family.

“I grew up Presbyterian in Boulder,” she says. “Dad was a chemistry professor at CU, and Mom was a fiber artist. That combination of science and art is an important part of me. There were benefits to my Presbyterian upbringing, too: familiarity with the Bible, and being comfortable praying out loud.”

Years later, Janet moved from Colorado to Kansas City with her second husband, who was Roman Catholic. “We attended a Catholic church where the sermon for the day was about divorce being a sin,” she recalls. “After that, I went to an Episcopal church. I had occasionally attended St. John’s Episcopal in Boulder, and I was attracted to the liturgy. Plus, the theology was more open-minded.”

Moving in 1995 to Houston, Janet’s husband pursued his doctorate while she worked to support them, and she attended another Episcopal church. “That congregation was very progressive, openly accepting LGBTQ folks before that was common,” she says. “I also enjoyed having a woman Rector.”

Then Janet’s life took a disconcerting turn in 1999 that eventually led her to become our Artist in Residence.

“My husband got his doctorate, filed for divorce and moved to Connecticut,” she explains. “I returned to Colorado. On the drive here, I wondered what to do with my life. I moved into my parents’ basement for a while and took a job at an incense company, where I worked for 13 years. Meanwhile, I was working on some art for my former church in Houston when the editor of the Boulder Daily Camera published a story about my art.”

“My art-making practice has deepened my spirituality and theology.”

In September 2001, Janet bought a home in Longmont and transferred her church membership to St. Stephen’s. “In 2003, I made a piece of art for a family in the church, done just with the color white,” she says, “Father Max liked it, so I brought a similar one to church to show him. He put it up on the narthex wall for Easter. When Pentecost came along, I replaced that piece with a red one, and the tradition of exhibiting art for each church season continued from there. In 2011, I applied for an art commission for a church in Kentucky and needed to describe what I did at St. Stephen’s. Father Max and I decided on ‘Artist in Residence.’ ”

Now happily remarried, Janet notes that her work in liturgical art was a big factor in deciding to become a lay preacher and a Franciscan. “The Holy Spirit comes up with the ideas for my liturgical art,” she says. “My art-making practice has deepened my spirituality and theology.”