ALL SAINTS EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Dr. Kathleen Ahrens
When Dr. Kathleen Ahrens and her husband retired and decided to move here, she turned to her academic skills to also help her find a new church home.
"I'm a researcher, so I researched all the churches in the area," says one of All Saints' newest members. She found a lot to like about All Saints. "I loved Janet's sermons! I started coming to services and I thought her sermons were very inspirational."
She also found the people to be warm and friendly. "I met Jim Hawks at coffee hour," she says. "He suggested I should join the choir."
And that's what she did. Kathleen is now enjoying getting to know the members of the choir and is looking forward to the holiday music. "The people here are so friendly," she says.
Since she started attending during the summer, there was no choir. But as soon as the choir returned and began rehearsals, Kathleen joined. "Marianne Bock warmly welcomed me and has been a great resource as I learn all about the choir, and Nick has been very supportive. I love being around music and being able to practice," she says.
Kathleen went to high school outside of Springfield, Massachusetts, and studied at UMASS/Amherst for her undergraduate degree. She later went to Taiwan to get her master's degree in Chinese and studied at the University of California, San Diego for her doctorate in linguistics. In her twenty-plus years working as a tenured professor at universities in Hong Kong and Taiwan, she advanced research on the use of metaphor in political and business communication, served as head of department for seven years, and taught a variety of courses in linguistics, public speaking, and creative writing.
She is now an Honorary Professor in the Department of English and Communication at her previous university, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her husband, Dr Chu-Ren Huang, is an Emeritus Professor at the same university, where he was formerly Dean of Humanities and Chair Professor of Chinese and Bilingual Studies.
Kathleen and her husband came to Florida when they retired to be close to her father and stepmother, who live in Trinity. Even though they are retired, both Kathleen and her husband are still very active with academia and stay in close contact with many of their former students. Kathleen has started her own company, LogosRen Coaching. She describes herself as an academic strategist who provides executive coaching to other professors worldwide.
Kathleen enjoys swimming and is considering other possible new activities as they settle into retirement. She and her husband both enjoy reading, she says. Travel also may be on their agenda. When they were working and living in Hong Kong, they traveled extensively throughout Asia. Now they hope to do more traveling in the United States to see family and friends.
They have two children, both living in the Northeast. One works for a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., and the other is getting a doctorate in computer science and lives in Philadelphia.
John and Joanne Floyd
John and Joanne Floyd remember the wonderful feeling of family and the love of music that they enjoyed when they were members of Trinity Episcopal Church in eastern Maryland. They wanted to find a church like that here in Florida.
They checked out several churches in their search. Then they visited All Saints, which they found online. "We really liked the feel of your website," Joanne says. They visited the church before attending a service and also had a great feeling from the campus visit. And they watched a service online.
"We came and fell in love with this church," Joanne says. They especially loved the feeling of being a part of a family. "It was the people, the service and the welcome."
Joanne has always loved singing in the choir. "I was in the choir at Trinity and it was a beautiful experience. So immediately I wanted to join the choir here," she says. She is now a regular member of the All Saints choir.
Joanne was born and raised in a rural part of New Jersey, "closer to Wilmington, Delaware." She went to Rutgers University in New Brunswick, received a bachelor's degree in sociology and then attended Rutgers Law School in Camden. She got her law degree there and was licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
John was born in Hoboken, N.J., and went to work after school in New York as an insurance adjuster. Later he went into property and casualty insurance as an adjuster. He moved into management with American Internal Group (AIG) and went to the Virgin Islands. Then he joined Cigna Inc, traveling overseas to Japan, back to Pennsylvania and later to Latin America. "I did a lot of traveling, all over the world," John says with a smile.
The couple met quite by accident while both were working in Philadelphia. Joanne was meeting a client, and John was coming back to his office, which was nearby. They struck up a conversation. "We just clicked," Joanne says with a big smile. "And 37 years later we are still clicking."
They both worked in the Virgin Islands. Joanne was a prosecutor for two and a half years. And then when they returned to Pennsylvania, she became a criminal defense lawyer for 22 years. "I felt a calling for people who are marginalized and underrepresented," she said of her career shift.
They retired in 2015 and moved to Hudson, Fla., "where we still live," she says. She describes retirement as "the best years of my life."
Their interests are varied. John used to play golf. Joanne enjoyed yoga class for years and still does yoga at home. "After 35 years as a lawyer, I just wanted to veg out," she says, chuckling. "Now I'm getting more involved in the community."
She says her mother was a minister in the Pentecostal Church and "church was a very important part of my life."
They are interested in getting more active as they learn about the opportunities at All Saints to do community outreach. For now, they are enjoying meeting the people here.
Joanne has three daughters from a prior marriage and nine grandchildren. John has two sons and a daughter from a former marriage, and four granddaughters. All their children still live mostly in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Dr. Jamie Donnelly
Dr. Jamie Donnelly enjoys being active and involved. So, it's no surprise that shortly after joining All Saints, she already is a familiar face with a warm smile here. She is an usher and has helped out with Pack a Snack. And she's hoping to eventually help with coffee hour.
"I love Joanne's (Buerger) coffee hour!" she exclaims. "One of these days I might impulsively bake some Saturday night and bring something to the Sunday coffee hour."
Jamie first came to All Saints last Christmas Eve Mass. "I was looking for somewhere to go on Christmas Eve, and this was the closest Episcopal Church," she explains. She liked what she saw.
"I like all the friendly people, everyone was so wonderful," she says." I couldn't come and go the first time without three or four people speaking to me, giving me a Goody Bag to go. "
She added, "That's what I like about the Episcopal Church in general, all the outreach ministries and people responding to it."
Jamie was born and raised in Holyoke, Mass. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a degree in psychology, went to University of Hartford for a masters in school psychology and then started working as a school psychologist in Connecticut. She got her doctorate in health psychology from Walden University. She moved from Massachusetts to Hudson, Fla., in 2009. Eventually she moved to Tarpon Springs, where she now lives.
"I worked as a school psychologist until 2021, then I went to Keiser University in New Port Richey," she says. She now is professor and program director for psychology at the New Port Richey campus of Keiser. She also is University Department Chair in Psychology for the 20 campuses in Florida and several overseas campuses of Keiser University.
As if her academic duties were not enough to keep her busy, Jamie has become very involved in Tarpon Springs. She is on the board of Peace 4 Tarpon and is president-elect of the Florida Association of School Psychologists. She also teaches online as adjunct professor of psychology at Bethune University-Cookman University in Daytona Beach. She has been doing that job since 2017.
Jamie grew up in the Catholic Church but could not find a church that suited her interests. She found St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Hudson when she moved to Florida. Then she moved to Tarpon Springs.
She has never married, but she has her two beloved cats, Molly and Bellamy. Her mother, who lived with her here in Florida, died a year and a half ago. Her sister and her family all still live up North.
"It's hard to be involved during the week, since I still work," Jamie says. But she is doing a lot with her newfound church family. She still finds time to help out wherever she can at All Saints and enjoys getting to know the people. "I love it here in Tarpon Springs," she says with a big smile.