Path to Priestly Formation
By The Rev. Canon Mark Evans, The Diocese of Springfield, ‘09
A few years ago, I wrote a piece for Nashotah House’s Missioner magazine describing my call which ultimately resulted in coming to Nashotah House for an MDiv degree. The Chapter staff asked me to update and elaborate on that article with a special emphasis on how the House has impacted my ministry. As I write this, I just celebrated my 11th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood and I am a few months into a new position, so it seems meet and right to reflect and take stock.
First, the bad news. If pressed to give the date of the Seventh Council of the Church, I would need to look it up. (No, Fr. Holtzen, I swear I didn’t use Wikipedia). The good news is that my Hebrew skills are just as sharp as the day I graduated. (Dr. Johnson, it wasn’t your fault). But one does not choose the House merely for its academic classrooms; one chooses the House because its classrooms are situated in a chapel.
My career before seminary was managing equity portfolios. For me, the investment profession is as wide-ranging, intellectually stimulating and emotionally challenging as there is. I chose that profession and worked hard to hone my skills. I ran the performance race for 25 years, did it well and was well compensated for my efforts. Thus, I was well acquainted with the importance of academic training and intellectual effort in order to be effective with one’s calling (yes, I do believe that investing, or any other work, can be a call). But, even if I could not articulate it at the time, there was some part of me that knew I needed not only intellectual training but spiritual training too. (Hat tip to the Holy Spirit).
How did I know that the House was the place that could provide that spiritual training? Well, I didn’t know anything, but the Holy Spirit helped with some hints. I visited two other Episcopal seminaries, but they felt ‘not quite right.’ On an earlier occasion, my then-girlfriend, now my wife, and I were visiting her brother who lives in the village of Nashotah. On a whim, she and I drove over to the campus to stroll around. The first words out of her mouth were, “Wow, I can feel the holiness here.” These experiences and others set me on the path to choose Nashotah House for my priestly formation.
Did I find what I had been groping for? Yes, and then some. Was it easy? By no means! I never had serious thoughts of quitting, but God and I did have lots of conversations where I questioned his acumen for picking priests. Over time though, that Benedictine ethos of the House not only formed me but transformed me. I had a number of epiphanies that led to some serious metanoia. Those epiphanies continue to happen, and I expect them to continue until my death, and they can be traced back to that spiritual formation at Nashotah House.
My first call was to return to the House as a staff member. After a year and a half, I resigned to seek a parish ministry call. In late 2011, I started at my first parish, Trinity Episcopal Church in Lincoln, Illinois. Lincoln is also home to two colleges, one of them in the Protestant Evangelical tradition which also has a seminary where I got to know some of the professors. The professors of Spiritual Direction and of Worship have invited me to guest lecture in their respective courses to provide a slice of what I learned at Nashotah House. When I describe the two hours a day spent in chapel and the style of worship that inspires us to worship the transcendent Creator, I get all sorts of reactions. On one hand, some cannot fathom spending that much time in church each day (the norm there is 45 minutes of chapel per week) and the single chalice can evoke a little squeamishness. But, on the other hand, some are intrigued by the opportunity to spend sustained time in prayer and the Word in community each day, and questions about Real Presence, the Church Year, and liturgy abound.
The ‘blue’ House at Nashotah House. Originally where the seminary began, in 1842, and the following year, a little red chapel—the Chapel of St. Sylvanus—was built beside it.
A theology professor was instrumental in bringing a number of young people, mostly his grad students, to Trinity Episcopal Church. One Sunday I referenced an Early Church Father in the sermon. Afterward, a young man who had previously never worshipped with us exclaimed that any church that preaches the Fathers is the church he wanted to attend. Another student told me he was overcome with emotion when we resumed singing the Gloria at the Easter Vigil after its Lenten hiatus. When I started at Trinity, I was in my early 50s, but I could have been a member of the youth group. Now, we often have a dozen worshippers under age 30 because we try to provide that spiritual content that I learned at Nashotah House.
What I see in these experiences is that Nashotah House offers something that is not just a unique ethos in the Anglican Church but is something that mature Christians of every kind desire. This goes deeper than a pretty liturgy; it digs down into our hearts to transform us, teaching us not just what to do but how to be.
A few months ago, my Bishop asked me to become the Canon to the Ordinary for the Diocese of Springfield. The (now former) theology professor is my successor at Trinity. He was ordained a Deacon this spring and will be ordained to the priesthood this fall. A student of his, who moved to Lincoln to study with him, discerned a call to ordination while attending Trinity. He graduated from the House in 2019 and is a priest in Dallas. They will not be the last; a few more are in discernment right now and the House is where they hope to be formed because they sense that what they will experience there is good, pure, and true.
Bless, O Lord, this House …
The Rev. Canon Mark Evans, MDiv ’09, was raised in a Christian home and attended Zion Lutheran Church in Clear Lake, Iowa, with his family. After graduating from Luther College in Iowa, he embarked on a career in investment management in Des Moines, Iowa, and also earned an MBA from Drake University. Sadly, regular church attendance was not a priority during this phase of his life. In his mid-20s he moved to Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and after a few years, found his way into the Church of the Intercession. Mark was pleased to offer his time, talent, and treasure to the parish and to the Diocese of Fond du Lac in a variety of liturgical, financial, and leadership roles. Then, God intervened. After a long interval of discernment, Mark accepted that the call to ordained ministry was unavoidable. In his mid-40s Mark left the corporate world to enter Nashotah House. After graduation, Fr. Evans served the House as Director of Church Relations from January 2010 until June 2011 and was regular supply at St. Paul’s Plymouth, Wisconsin for a time. In December 2011, he was called as Rector of Trinity Church, in Lincoln, Illinois, where he served until May 2020. In January 2020, he accepted the call to be Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of Springfield.