Stories of Discernment: Casey Clough

The word “discernment” has taken up a lot of room in my life for the past several years.

I came to St. David’s in the summer of 2020 during the stay-at-home orders, at the recommendation of a friend. While at home by myself for months, baking mediocre sourdough and spending more time than was healthy on epidemiologist blogs, I felt the stirring of something that I thought was in my past - a persistent feeling that I might be called to ordained ministry. I’ve felt this sense of call since I was a teenager, a lifetime and another world ago, but for most of my life I never believed that God would really call me, certainly God could clearly see that my life was anything but tidy and that I was far from holy, but the tugging feeling never fully went away. I would find myself staring into the dark at three in the morning, once again grappling with the feeling that God was asking something of me. In 2020, with nothing to distract me and nowhere for me to go, it was time to finally engage that feeling of call seriously. I can’t imagine a better place than St. David’s to go through discernment. The clergy and staff, my discernment committee, and my fellow parishioners have been supportive while asking the necessary hard questions, and they’ve walked with me through what is a stressful, vulnerable time. I’ve been encouraged to lead discussion groups, to explore various lay ministries in the church, to grow, and to ask all kinds of questions.