MEET THE THOMPSONS

Interview by Anne Schmidt

During the pandemic we have been blessed with many new participants and members who have found a way to become part of our community despite us having limited opportunities to gather. One such couple came to us last April and officially joined months before they were able to set foot on our campus. Please meet Alyson and Kurt Thompson.

Tell us about yourselves.

Kurt is from Sherrill, New York, and Alyson is from Austin, Texas. We met and married in Denver, Colorado, in the Episcopal Church in May 2001.

Kurt works as an insurance underwriter until August 2021 when he will retire! Alyson worked as an internist/ nephrologist for 24 years in direct patient care, most recently with Parkland, before starting work from home with an insurance company in December 2019.

Kurt is an audiophile, mostly jazz and classical, and enjoys a good beer. He was very athletic before a skiing accident in February 1972 when he was a freshman in college. Alyson enjoys organic gardening with native plants and she absolutely loves cats. She was a Peace Corps volunteer and really enjoys learning about language.

We adopted our daughter from China when she was 10 months old, and she will soon be off to college in California to study business.

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What brought you to Transfiguration? Did the pandemic influence/inhibit your decision to join/find a new church?

At the beginning of the pandemic, many people were asking questions that may have been just below the surface for a while. Our question was —are there practices or attitudes in my current faith community that I need to abandon in order to follow Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone? Our individual faith journeys as adults had led us each to the Episcopal Church—the Episcopal Church was Alyson’s lifeline during medical training and when her dad died and was where we literally met each other and later married. From there as a couple we worshipped in Presbyterian and Baptist congregations in Denver and Dallas, where we were involved in finance, children’s, prayer and medical ministries. The pandemic brought into focus that we needed to be part of a faith community where each person is truly accepted and loved as themselves; we knew we needed to be back in the Episcopal Church which had sustained us in the past in the most challenging and the most joyful times of our lives.

What ministries have you been involved with since joining The Fig?

We have seen in the last year at Transfiguration that the Holy Spirit is here: you accept us, you love us, you are honest and ask thought-provoking questions about our faith, and you share what is essential about the Christian life in service to others. We have been able to build relationships with really wonderful people in Adult Formation on Zoom and in praying the Daily Office online and in the work of the Racial Justice Ministry.

What would you say to someone who might be hesitant to become involved during these strange times?

We would say that our last year at Transfiguration has been life-giving and has allowed us individually and as a couple a deeper exploration of our faith with openhearted people among whom we can be ourselves, be at peace, and finally be at home.

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