As a seminary student at Sewanee: The University of the South, Josh Stephens found sanctuary in both the school chapel and the trails winding through the picturesque 13,000-acre campus atop the Cumberland Plateau.  A decade and a half later, Father Josh is back in the mountains after having been called to serve as rector for St. John in the Wilderness in February 2020. 

This time, however, Father Josh has a parish congregation and a growing family with whom to share his love of wandering through the fields, woods, and waters of God's creation.

Josh Stephens did not grow up in the mountains. As a child, he was raised by surfing parents and spent a significant portion of his youth with an eye towards the sea. “The ocean was where we might lose ourselves,” he explains, “riding waves or simply being humbled by the ocean's beauty and power. I still have this deep need to get outside in one way or another and to be in beautiful and wild places.”

Although perhaps not fully articulated at the time, Josh was developing a deep-rooted sense that his faith and his love of the natural world are inexorably intertwined. It was during his seminary training that the connection fully crystallized in his mind.  “I learned to pray there both in the seminary chapel during formal liturgies, and on the trails and lakes and waterfalls of the Cumberland Plateau. It's all prayer. I cannot separate time at the altar rail from time on the trail. I encounter the same God in both places and I need one to understand the other.”

Shortly after his arrival at St. John, Fr. Josh began to invite the congregation to join him on “Holy Hikes” to explore the natural beauty of the scenic areas around Flat Rock.  Fr. Josh views time in the natural world as integral to the history of his new parish. “At St. John in the Wilderness, we not only have "wilderness" in our name but in our spiritual DNA,” he says. “The founders of our parish found the wilderness of Flat Rock to be a refuge for their souls. Even our church and churchyard retain this feeling of something wild and sacred -- a garden where God walks in the evening time.” 

In addition to hiking, Fr. Josh has taken the church youth mountain biking and on tubing excursions in local rivers. “Holy Hikes are opportunities for people to go on hikes and to claim the fact that when we do that, we are encountering God. And we can pause and pray and acknowledge God's presence in a beautiful place.” Holy Hikes are happening monthly and are open to anyone interested in joining in. Contact St. John in the Wilderness for more info.

As it turns out, calling a rector with a deep and abiding love of the outdoors was extremely fortuitous for St. John. Fr. Josh arrived just as the church and the nation embarked on a year-long struggle to figure out how to function during the worst pandemic our country has faced in over a century. “Three Sundays after I arrived we had to cancel worship and shut down due to COVID.”  

As the weather warmed, however, St. John began to hold worship services under a tent set up on church grounds. “In a way, we were forced out of our beloved and historic church building and into the wilderness literally and metaphorically,” says Fr. Josh. “Overall, this sojourn went remarkably well. Still, like any people wandering through the desert, we longed for home.”

St. John’s has a long history of dealing with adverse situations and that historical perspective has helped the church navigate the challenges of 2020. “We were literally founded by people who were escaping disease in the low country,” says Fr. Josh.  “The church has been through pandemics and we've been through warfare. We've been through the highs and lows of American civic and religious life. That history provides an ability to have context. We can be more solid and we can be more clear about who we are and what we do.”

The pandemic also served as a reminder that church, even one situated in a historic structure, is much more than just the building that houses worship services. “The first time we gathered under a tent we were sort of in the wilderness,” explains Fr. Josh. “The message that I preached that first Sunday comes from Augustine's Confessions. Augustine has a conversation with a friend which ends with him realizing that it's not four walls and a roof that make a church.”

At 35 years of age, Fr. Josh clearly brings a new and unique energy to his parish.  But he does so with an experience and appreciation for historic settings such as St. John. Indeed, he served most recently as a priest at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, VA.  Fr. Josh is only the fourth rector at St. John since it ceased to be just a summer chapel in the early 1960s and he is also the youngest rector in the history of the church.

Despite his relative youth, Fr. Josh respects and fully embraces the traditions of the Episcopal Church.  “I think the answers that the church is looking for about what is next will not come from some innovative technology or liturgical contemporarization. We will find renewal in what is ancient and true. You might say that I bring a youthful enthusiasm to the old traditions that have sustained us.”

“As a rector, I bring a certain appreciation for the traditions of the past and the history of Saint John and the Wilderness while looking for opportunities to find renewal and growth and discover what God might do next.”

Fr. Josh and his family are quickly settling into their new home and new roles. “My wife, Rosanna, is an emergency medicine physician serving on the frontlines of the pandemic right now. We have two daughters, ages three and seven months, and my thirteen-year-old niece lives with us also. We all love mountain biking and reading.“

As for Henderson County and Flat Rock, Josh and his family already feel at home. “We feel so fortunate to be raising our kids here. We love the mountains, the culture, the restaurants, and the people. There is no place where I would rather go through a pandemic. I am fascinated by the history of Flat Rock and the village feel of it. It's such a gift.”

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Read more about Fr. Josh here.

Holy Hikes at St. John in the Wilderness