Two Retired Episcopal priests become Providence Associates

Rev. Amy Donohue-Adams and Rev. William Seth Adams

This coming Saturday, November 9, most of the Providence Associate candidates who have been journeying and discerning with their companions this past year will become Providence Associates at the Rite of Commitment Ceremony at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. But two who began with this group in October of last year have been Providence Associates since September.

On Washington’s Whidbey Island, on a very Pacific Northwest Sunday morning as far as the weather was concerned, Rev. Amy Donohue-Adams and Rev. William Seth Adams, husband and wife retired Episcopal priests, became Providence Associates. Sister Diane Mason, director of Providence Associates, and Debbie Dillow, assistant director, detoured from a trip to Spokane for a meeting to participate in this joyous occasion.

Surrounded by members of their parish community of St. Augustine in the Woods Episcopal Church, Amy and Bill read their joint commitment statement and received their Associate pins. At the invitation of the Rector, Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton, Amy was the special presider, with Bill assisting, at the regular Sunday liturgy immediately following their commitment ceremony.

I’ve been blessed to serve as companion to Amy and Bill through the discernment journey toward becoming Providence Associates. The experience has enriched my life and deepened the bond of our special friendship.

I met Amy first, shortly after she and Bill moved to Whidbey Island from Austin, Texas, in the fall of 2010. Because of a profile on the Sisters of Providence website posted when I was a Candidate, Amy knew I lived on the island and set out to contact me. We joke that she “stalked” me at a local library event.

People speak of happy coincidences, or serendipities or use other words to describe things that take place by chance and enrich their lives. But there are those of us who know differently. We know that it is Providence working in our lives. It is through this lens of Providence that I view how and why Amy and Bill are in my life. Trying to explain or describe it otherwise is impossible.

Amy is a former Sister of Providence and I think of both of us as being “rooted in Providence”. The Sisters of Providence entered our lives when each of us was very young and have never left. Bill often says he is indebted to the Sisters for the woman Amy is today.

As Providence Associates we are among a growing group of women and men in a formal relationship with the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. We come from diverse faith traditions but are united in responding to the call of Providence. We wish to deepen our spiritual lives while continuing in our own particular way of life.

If you feel Providence is inviting you, for more information, contact either Sister Diane Mason, director of Providence Associates, at 708-364-7917 (dmason@spsmw.org) or Debbie Dillow, PA, assistant director of Providence Associates at 317-994-6821 (ddillow@spsmw.org).