Lisa Neilson and Lynne Waltman ordained deacons January 15

The Rt. Rev. J. Scott Mayer ordained Lisa Neilson and Lynne Waltman to the Sacred Order of Deacons on Friday, January 15, 2016, at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Keller.

The Rt. Rev. Rayford B. High, Jr., preached.

Neilson, a cradle Episcopalian, was baptized and confirmed in the Diocese of Colorado. She was active in the Episcopal Campus Ministry at Syracuse University and served in a parish near the campus as a Lay Eucharistic Minister, lector, and clerk of the vestry. She and her family have been members of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Keller, for 18 years. She has been a Sunday school teacher, worship leader, lay eucharistic minister, lay eucharistic visitor, vestry member, and senior warden. Neilson attended Brite Divinity School part time for three years while working at BNSF Railway. In the fall of 2014 she transferred to Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA. She is currently in her second year of field education ministry at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. and will continue serving there until she graduates from VTS in May 2016 with a Master of Divinity degree.

Lynne Waltman is from Lake Bluff, Illinois. She came to Texas in 1974 for graduate school at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas. She worked as a medical illustrator for 18 years, then moved into digital animation and web development. She and husband, Bill, will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary this year. The Waltmans lived for four years in Saudi Arabia where their two children were born. Lynne currently works as business manager for All Saints’, Fort Worth. She was raised in the Methodist Church and was introduced to the Episcopal Church by her husband (then fiancé) and was confirmed in 1987 at All Saints’. She has served in many ministries at All Saints’ including lector, Sunday school teacher, vestry member, Stephen minister, Outreach and Mission Commission Chair, and eucharistic minister.  She has taken coursework at Nashotah Theological Seminary and at Brite Divinity School. Her supervised ministry through Brite is at St. Stephen’s, Hurst.

See more photos at the diocesan Flickr gallery.

See even more photos at the St. Martin Flickr gallery. These photos were taken by Susan and Gil Kleinwechter of St. Martin.

Watch a video of Bishop High’s sermon here.

Watch a short video of the event here.