Clergy: The Reverend Theron Walker, “Father Theron”
My Story
I relate to king David in the Old Testament. Deep within me, I want to be known as David was, “A man after God’s own heart.” I look up to him for his faith and faithfulness before giants and an insanely jealous king, for the way he inspired friendship and courage in others, and especially for the day he danced before the Lord with all his might—his passion and love for God. I also relate to him because he was always a sinner—imperfect father, husband, and leader. Yet, when faced with his sins, he confessed them to the Lord, and did all in his power to right his wrongs.
I grew up in the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination. Like many church kids, I always believed Jesus was my savior, but was not all that interested in having a Lord in my life! Just before my seventeenth birthday, alone in my bed, I called out to the Lord and asked Him for the strength and power to live a holy, obedient, Christian life. In that moment, I experienced the Holy Spirit in a personal way, was flooded with peace, and spoke in those strange tongues spoken of in the New Testament.
I went to college at Oral Robert’s University, where I majored in Old Testament Literature and minored in Modern Hebrew. While studying church history and humanities in Western Civilization, I realized that there was so much more to Christianity than just what was happening in the charismatic movement in the 20thcentury. I also realized I needed the worship of the church, the liturgy, that sustained the saints who I was meeting in history.
These realizations led me to the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, and through there, to Virginia Theological Seminary. Since then, I have served congregations in Oklahoma and Colorado. In 2010, after years of working for reform and renewal in the Episcopal Church, I left that jurisdiction of Anglicanism for the Anglican Church of North America, in the Diocese of the Holy Spirit.
Biography in Brief
Hometown: Hamburg, New York (Buffalo region)
1989 B.A. in Old Testament Literature, Oral Robert’s University, Magna Cum Laude (floor chaplain, resident advisor, summer missions to Israel, teacher’s assistant).
1996 Masters in Divinity, Virginia Theological Seminary, Cum Laude. (President of the Missionary Society).
Ordination to Diaconate in the Diocese of Oklahoma: June 1996
Ordination to the Priesthood in the Diocese of Oklahoma: December 21, 1996.
Curate at St. Michael’s and St. Anselm of Canterbury, Norman Oklahoma, 1996-1998
Vicar and Rector of St. James, Oklahoma City, 1998-2001.
Associate Rector of Grace and St. Stephen’s, Colorado Springs, 2001-2005.
Rector of St. Philip-in-the-Field, Sedalia, Colorado, 2005-2010.
Currently: Founding Planter and Rector of Emmaus Anglican Church, Castle Rock, Co.
Other Ministries
Founding member and sometime leader of Communion Laity and Clergy of Colorado (a fellowship of Episcopalians committed to the historic faith and order of Anglicanism).
Disaster Relief leader following 1999 tornado in Moore, Oklahoma.
Publications
Living on the Borders: What the church can learn from ethnic immigrant cultures. With Mark Griffin, Brazos Press, 2004
