My album from today’s ordination and consecration as a priest of the Rev. Payton Walker Høegh. During a festive service at St. John’s Cathedral, the three-legged stool of Payton’s emotional and prayer support comprised his parents, stepparents, and other members of their family, many all the way from Iowa, and his two beloved St. Stephenses — in Hollywood, his sponsoring parish, and in Santa Clarita, where he spent a transformative internship year.
The Rev. Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton and the Very Rev. Christopher Montella joined Payton’s spouse, Jazmín Zúñiga Høegh, and his mother, Kim Stickles, in presenting Payton for ordination. The Rev. Karri Backer led Payton’s pre-ordination retreat.
Program director of the Center for Spirituality in Nature, Payton twins his devotion to creation care with a vision of the sacramental power of the risen Christ extending beyond church walls, marshaling the authority that comes from stressing shared narrative and intentional curiosity. “Our responsibility as followers of Christ,” he says, “is to restore depth to our encounters.”
The cathedral’s interim dean and priest in charge, the Very Rev. Anne Sawyer, celebrated Holy Eucharist, assisted by the Revs. Margaret Hudley McCauley and Mel Soriano. I was along as preacher and mediator of the sacred moment when, in the liturgy’s silent spaces, the Holy Spirit comes down and makes a priest.
