The Rev. Joseph Wolyniak
Associate for Digital Engagement
Role
I’m the Associate Rector for Digital Engagement, creating digital pathways for people to explore faith, community, and the way of Jesus.
Church/Faith Background
Baptized Catholic, I eventually deconstructed my faith, embraced atheism, and wanted nothing to do with the Church… until the Holy Spirit tracked me down in college. My journey took me through nondenominational and charismatic communities, back to Catholicism and work with the Franciscans, and eventually into Anglicanism, which my college sweetheart and I discovered at Methodist seminary. She was received into the Episcopal Church first; I followed via the Church of England in 2009. After studying theology at Oxford and living in a Catholic Worker community, we returned to the U.S. and made Colorado home. Ordained in 2016, I’ve since served in diocesan leadership, campus ministry, and, for the past seven years, at Christ Church Denver.
Geographical moves
Born and raised in Michigan, I spent my high school, college, and seminary years in North Carolina. Since then, my wife and I have collected ZIP codes across the US and UK: calling Durham, Oxford, New Haven, Princeton, Philadelphia, Denver, Seattle, and now Aspen home (cue Cash’s “I’ve Been Everywhere”). After all those moves, Colorado is where our wanderlust found rest.
Family connections
Most of our extended family is scattered across North Carolina (Charlotte, the Triangle, and Asheville), but they’re begrudgingly accepting that we’ve found our home at 8,000 feet.
Interests/hobbies
I love nothing more than roaming Colorado’s unmatched wilds with my family: hiking, camping, suping, letting the high country reset our souls. When not outside, I’m buried in books (working through Bonaventure’s corpus at the moment), catching an indie film at Aspen’s ISIS theater, or shouting myself hoarse for every Denver team (especially the Nuggets).