From Ann’s early teens into marriage and motherhood, a dynamic faith characterized her life. She cared for their family of four children and worked part-time while the children were in school. She was also active in the community, serving a three-year term on the local school board and the board for special education.

Active participation in the local church was always important in Ann’s life. Singing in church choir, teaching, serving on the church council and in other leadership roles, became the visible signs others read as gifts pointing toward seminary and ordained ministry. After their children left home, Ann went to seminary, graduating with a Masters of Divinity in1982 and was ordained to the ministry in 1984.

Her birth into an Old Order Amish family on a farm near Kokomo, Indiana, seemed light years away from the Chicago hospital the afternoon her husband revealed his hidden life as a gay man. His death from AIDS seven weeks later was the impetus for Ann’s ministry with others affected by the AIDS crisis. It was a ministry that led her to question the traditional views and attitudes of the church and society toward same-sex orientation.

Currently Ann is retired and lives in Newton, Kansas where she worships with the New Creation Fellowship Church. She offers individual spiritual direction and occasionally leads workshops at Heartland Center for Spirituality in Great Bend, Kansas

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