Lenia has now officially joined the staff of St. Michael’s and is diving right in. She is attending staff meetings and planning meetings for the upcoming youth retreats, and she will participate in the first retreat next week in Bend. At the end of July, she will begin gathering with the 1:00 pm service youth, alternating middle- and high-school youth in the Raphael Room during the service. She will also participate in the Hope & Fire youth retreat at the beginning of August. We encourage you to read Lenia’s interesting back story in her own words below. 

Hello. My name is Lenia Salas and I will be working with youth ministry as the Youth Missioner for the entire community of Saint Michael & All Angels. I am an immigrant of Cuban origin. I was born in Cuba and came to the United States at the age of twenty-one as a member of a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church: the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Theresa of Calcutta.

Although I am no longer a member of the religious order or the Roman Catholic Church, I continue to feel and hear God’s call to serve in the Church, this time in the community of St. Michael’s and in the Episcopal Church. I started attending the Catholic Church when I was twelve years old in my hometown on my own, since my family was completely atheist. And I lived in Cuba at a time when the Churches there were persecuted by the communist government and a dictatorship that still rules in my native country.

I am currently studying a Master of Divinity at the Pacific School of Religion with the purpose of graduating as a chaplain. I am also a member of the LGBTQ+ community and the Queer community. I live with my partner, proud of my sexual identity and blessed to have found an affirming community and Church to be a part of.

If I had to summarize my life so far, I would say that I am an immigrant who, like many immigrants, is trying to get ahead in this country. And as a Christian I try to follow God’s call to serve my siblings, inside and outside the Church.