Monday, May 23, 2011

Long, winding road brought new pastor to St. Charles Church


From Colorado-

It has been a long and winding road that brought Lyn Burns from her birthplace in South Africa to her new post as pastor of St. Charles Episcopal Church in Fort Morgan.

She left South Africa in her late 20s to get away from apartheid.

Burns is far from unique in that; apartheid and reverse apartheid have resulted in a "brain drain" in the country, she said.

"The South African situation has split more families than you can imagine," she declared.

Two of her sisters and a brother also left the country and now live in New Zealand.

"I consider myself more Coloradan than anything else," Burns said, noting that she lived in Boulder for a number of years and served in La Veta and Alamosa before coming to St. Charles.

She also has two grown childen, a son and a daughter, living in Colorado.

Ordained in Denver in 2006 after going to Virginia Theological Seminary, Burns spent a year as a chaplain at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, then served in La Veta three years and six months in Alamosa.

Some members of St. Charles have asked her what she thinks of living in a small town; she replies, "This isn`t small."

She has been in towns with dirt roads and one traffic light, she said -- and she likes to go to the country to find peace.

More here-

http://www.fortmorgantimes.com/ci_18104464

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