Welcome! I have been an unabashed computer geek for many years, though it
became quite a bit easier to say what I did for a living once personal
computers became pervasive. Having been what is now called an
"Information Technology" professional for so long, I come complete
with my share of war stories and urban legends.
My professional perspective has changed substantially over the years.
After receiving the "Celestial 2x4 across the forehead" (to get
my attention), I began a lengthy journey of discernment and formation that
resulted in my ordination as an Episcopal priest. More of that story
appears below.
Also, a new term crept into my vocabulary. Just as software engineering and
IT have evolved in recent decades, so have the realities of smaller churches,
of which many are no longer able to afford full-time clergy. The result
is that an increasing number of clergy, including myself, have become
"bi-vocational," which is to say that before my retirement I split my
time between professional employment and serving a congregation. I'm
grateful to have accumulated a wealth of technical experience that I could
offer to both my employers and the churches I served. Now that both my
professional and vocational lives have been nudged into retirement, I serve as
a supply priest/pastor as best I can.
I was one of the pioneers
(those with arrow scars in their butts) of software engineering. Even in
the mid 1960s, my high school selected a few of us to learn programming on
the computers of the era. I learned ALGOL at the University of Denver on
their Burroughs B-5500, and "Intercom 500" (the machine language for the
Bendix G-15) using puched cards and punched tape, respectively. As an MIT
undergrad, I took whatever computer courses I could (I was one year too early
for the Computer Science option in the EE department). It was the Vietnam
era, and I opted for Air Force ROTC and 4 years as an officer instead of
waiting to be drafted (my low #57 in the first draft lottery would have assured
that) for two years of elisted service.
After graduation from MIT
and commissioning as a 2nd Lieutenant, the Air Force was kind enough (enlightened
self-interest, I'm sure) to allow me a year to obtain a Master's Degree at
the Ohio State University before assigning me as a Computer Systems Programming
Officer (Systems) at HQ SAC, Offutt AFB, NE. I was fighting the Cold War,
keeping a very early online database alive to support the intelligence community.
The war ended in 1973, and I was separated from active duty in 1974, returning
home to the family mattress manufacturing business in Denver, while also
consulting with the primary contractor for my former system in Omaha. That
evolved into a full-time job as a Systems Representative (et al) in the Denver
office of Honeywell Information Systems, where I stayed until 1981.
In 1981, Honeywell gave me a promotion and relocated my family to greater
Boston. I was the expert on both mainframe and minicomputer databases and
online transaction processing systems, which included a great deal of work
in the depths of the operating systems of both series of computers. By 1987,
Honeywell was struggling (I'm sure it wasn't my fault, but who knows?)
and I moved to Digital Equipment Corp to join their Secure Systems organization
in the development of a high-trust system to support mullti-level national
security needs. From there, I went to the Open Software Foundation Research
Insititue, where we developed a high-trust operating system kernel (MK++) for desktop
and office systems.
I returned home to Colorado in 1997 and rebooted my life. I had passed my
peak in software engineering, but I had the good fortune to work for several
companies that were developing/supporting interesting systems for their customers.
In 2000, I received the afore-mentioned "Celestial 2x4 across the forehead,"
which launched me into the ordination process, as described below.
Following a hiatus, during which I completed a Master of Divinity
degree and served as Priest-in-Charge of an Episcopal parish, I returned to
full-time software engineering in 2012 as a Software Consultant for Sogeti USA.
My engagement was with the Hewlett-Packard Workstation Global Business Unit in
Fort Collins, CO. I had been with Sogeti at HP
prior to seminary, and it was very nice to re-establish my professional career
in that setting. When that engagement ended, I had time to take stock.
As I reflect on the variety of positions I have held
over the years, I realize that the ones that were the most satisfying allowed
me to combine interpersonal skills with technical challenges. I had
accumulated a great deal of technical expertise over time, starting with the
basic engineering discipline of learning how to learn. At the same time,
I enjoyed working with customers and other engineers to establish a vision of
how things should be and to find creative solutions to the problems
raised. After ordination, I applied those skills in service to churches
and outside ministries, who have many of the same challenges.
Prior to my retirement at age 72, I most recently served as the long-term Supply Priest, then
half-time Vicar of St. Elizabeth's
Episcopal Church in Brighton, CO from September, 2014 through March,
2019. St. Elizabeth's is a small congregation, and I was blessed to serve
them. Before that engagement, I was a Priest Associate at Trinity Episcopal Church
in Greeley, Colorado. My first actual cure was as the Priest-in-Charge of
the Episcopal Parish Church of St. Charles the Martyr (small church, long
name) in Fort Morgan, Colorado. When my three year tenure at St. Charles
came to an end, I shifted to providing worship leadership and pastoral assistance
to meet the needs of the congregations around me in NE Colorado.
Once I had retired for real, I once again became available for pulpit
supply on Sundays to Episcopal and Lutheran churches in the Episcopal Dioceses of Colorado and Nebraska, and the Rocky Mountain Synod (ELCA). Before
and during the pandemic, my last long-term relationship was with St. Hilda’s
Episcopal Church in Kimball, NE. Kimball
is due north of my former home in Fort Morgan, CO, and I was the only available
Episcopal priest for miles and miles.
That ended in in 2021, after which I found my way home to Trinity
Episcopal Church in Greeley as a parishioner.
I am also the founding Secretary and a multi-term Director of St. Clare's Ministries, which
began life in the 1980s as a parish outreach ministry to the homeless and
working poor in central Denver. When the sponsoring parish became
"imperiled" (at risk of closure, due to its inability to support
itself), St. Clare's was spun off to ensure its survival. I led the
effort to incorporate St. Clare's Ministries as a Diocesan Institution in
2009. More than ten years later, we continue to serve 45-200 hot meals
every Tuesday evening (holidays included), along with providing clothing and
toiletries to meet basic needs. Volunteers from as many as 15 different
congregations take part each month, and they have proven to be the secret to
our success as a ministry. We established an optional Holy Communion
service several years ago, which has helped our guests to evolve from people
looking for a meal to a very open community of faith that cares for its own and
invites others to join them. I led worship on the first Tuesday of each
month from 2008 (when I was still wet behind the ears) until it was suspended by
the pandemic. The feeding/clothing ministry has continued
unabated, though.
As I adapted professionally to the sea change in
the technical world, the turning of the millennium was also a good time to
reflect upon the vocation that had long been nagging at me. As a result,
I entered the formal Discernment process in the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado.
Three years later, I was named a "Postulant for Holy Orders," by
which I was approved to prepare for ordination as a priest in the Episcopal
Church USA.
In 2007, I graduated from the Episcopal
Theological Seminary of the Southwest (ETSS) in Austin, Texas. ETSS has
since rebranded itself as the Seminary of the
Southwest, (SSW). Formation as an Episcopal
priest includes the earning of a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree, which
entails a three year course of study (including summers). Returning to
academia after three decades was a bit daunting, but this leg of the journey
proved to be quite exciting.
Complementing my academic formation, I was
required to take a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), which included
300 hours of hospital chaplaincy plus 100 hours of supervision and
instruction. My clinical work was done as a Chaplain Intern at the Boulder Community Hospital for ten weeks during
the summer of 2006, between my "Middler" and "Senior" years of
seminary.
My seminary also required us to engage in cultural
immersion during the first two (Junior and Middler) years of the M.Div.
program. I spent two weeks in Santa Fe, NM and Ciudad Juárez in January of my Junior year; the next year's January
immersion took the form of relief work among victims of Hurricane Katrina on
the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The scope of the disaster was so vast that I
created a Hurricane Katrina web page to bring
together photos of the devastation and to describe our part in the response to
it.
An important piece of my formation is getting
actual experience in a parish setting. To that end, I was placed with St. Mark's Episcopal Church in
San Marcos, thirty miles south of Austin. As a "Middler," I was
expected to spend five hours per week in this assignment (as if one could keep
it to five); as a Senior, it was 10 hours/week. My duties included
occasional preaching, leading a Christian Formation class between the main
services, planning & execution of the Great Vigil of Easter, and becoming
fully integrated into the life of the parish.
St. Mark's was a wonderful placement. The
parish was then in transition from "Pastoral sized" (where the Rector
is essentially the head of an extended family) to "Program sized" (where
the Rector provides general oversight, but most authority is distributed among
lay leaders). St. Mark's has since built and occupied a new campus
west of San Marcos. This was an exceptional time in the life of the
parish, especially in terms of the lessons I was able to take with me as I
entered ordained ministry. The St. Mark's family is also a wonderfully
welcoming group, which provided a delightful diversity of opinions and
backgrounds to challenge any assumptions that I had made.
Once I returned home to Colorado, I joined the Office of the
Bishop as the Coördinator of the 120th Diocesan Convention in
October, 2007. This assignment was primarily project management (drawing
upon my engineering background), with a dash of ecclesiastical politics and a
generous dose of networking. I was blessed to be surrounded by
exceptional people, so things fell into place quite nicely and the Convention
went very well. I was also made Secretary of Convention in the process;
that office has responsibilities that continue through the year. Once I had
become a known entity, my job description became heavy on "other duties as
assigned" in the Office of the Bishop, even as I begin to serve
congregations within the diocese as a supply priest.
During the six months separating my ordinations as a Transitional Deacon and as
a Priest, I affiliated with two Denver parishes. I grew up at the Church of the Ascension, and that
parish "adopted" me as a Priest Associate; I presided at my first
Holy Eucharist there on the day after my ordination as a priest. I also
became a regular part of the St. Clare's Kitchen ministry at the Parish of St.
Peter & St. Mary, which I described earlier. These two affiliations
were nicely complementary and have been a gift to me. My St. Clare's
affiliation has continued as it evolved to become a separately incorporated
Diocesan Institution (St. Clare's Ministries), of which I became the Secretary
and have served multiple terms on the Board of Directors.
I served as Priest-in-Charge of the Parish Church of St. Charles the Martyr in
Fort Morgan, CO for almost three years, starting in April, 2008. It was
much like an extended engagement, though it did not conclude in a
"marriage." Having discerned that my calling at that time was to be as a
"bi-vocational" priest, I re-entered the technical professional
ranks, allowing me to serve small congregations that were unable to hire
full-time clergy.
I served St. Elizabeth's in Brighton for 4½ years as long-term Supply and half
time Vicar. As I faced mandatory retirement in February, 2020, I took short-term
assignments to meet the needs of the congregations around me.
When I returned to my native Colorado in 1997 after a sixteen year
sojourn in eastern Massachusetts, I first concentrated on "rebooting"
my life. The change of venue allowed me to reconnect with long-time friends and
family and to find peace and refreshment as I gaze upon and explore the Rocky
Mountains.
Recent years have contained an abundance of
"interesting times" (in the sense of the Chinese curse), but another
old saying is that "anything that doesn't kill you makes you
stronger." If that's the case, I suppose I’ve gotten stronger over
time.
I also made a turn for the better in the health
arena. As an overweight middle-aged male with an infamous snoring
problem, it came as no surprise to me when I was diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea . For me,
the treatment that works is a Constant
Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) machine to keep my airway open at night, even when I travel . Follow the
links for more information.
Along the way, I made
a new life with the former Cynthia Obermeyer, who I had met on a Cursillo
weekend (she was a Candidate; I was on the team) in 2006. Cynthia had a combination
of intelligence, spirituality, love, and passion for ministry that stole
my heart. We were married on January 2, 2010 (a palindrome: 01022010) in
Denver and we lived (commutes and all) in Fort Morgan, halfway to Nebraska
from Denver along I-76. We were at our best in service, ranging from St.
Clare's Ministries, Denver to St. Elizabeth's, Brighton.
Alas, Cynthia passed away on May 10, 2019.
We had a wonderful celebration of her life at St. Martin-in-the-Fields
Episcopal Church, Aurora, from which I had taken her in 2010 and to which I returned
her. Her family and I had a second celebration at her parents' church in
Nokesville, VA a few weeks later. She is interred under All Souls' Walk
at St. John's Cathedral, Denver, not far from my parents.
As they say, "all work and no play ...".
It should come
as no surprise that I'm still a computer geek, but that's not all.
E-mail: Kindel@Alum.MIT.edu
PGP fingerprint: D0A4 8840 08A5 12B8 BDA8 29C2 ECA5 25B1 2FC7 6BFF