Who We Are
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
John 12:24
Why dandelions?
Dandelions are weeds aren’t they?
The dictionary defines a weed as a plant that grows profusely where it is not wanted. Mainly weeds “are plants unwanted in human-controlled settings, such as farm fields, gardens, lawns, and parks.” What a perfect description of the Gospel.
God’s good news in Jesus Christ breaks through our illusions of control and invades our lives. He sends down roots and grows profusely in places of pain… places of death… events or memories in our lives that seem undesirable, unwanted, that we didn’t choose, that hurt. It is precisely there that God’s grace and forgiveness heal and create new life. This is our experience of Jesus Christ, and this is our mission: to magnify the grace of God to the place of pain.
These places of pain are transformed into seeds of new life for others. They now carry the word of hope in the face of loss, of sin, of death: there Christ lives.
Why art? Have you ever been driving along and your favorite song pops up on your playlist or over the radio and your spirit feels lifted or you’re instantly brought to tears? Do you have a post card of a painting or drawing that you just can’t throw away because it gives hope, or describes your pain? Something about it speaks to you at a visceral level…the deep calling to deep. The Lord speaks to us in every art medium in Scripture to get through to us. We want to do the same.
Kate’s late father, Peter Moore, used this image in the founding of FOCUS and he spoke these words over us as we were discerning our call to begin Dandelion. We honor him and ask the Lord to continue to blow the seeds.
The Norris Family
Sean, Kate, Skylar, and Rhyan (our cats, Mia and Jessie, are not pictured)
Sean and Kate met as high school students on a church missions trip to Mexico and have been together ever since. They have served many years as leaders in various churches and para-church ministries in Pittsburgh, New York City, and Charleston. Their call to ordained ministry arose out of a profound experience of being met in brokenness and pain by the radical grace of Jesus Christ. They graduated from Trinity School for Ministry. They were ordained as priests in the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh. While planting a church in Pittsburgh (2011-2016), they welcomed their two daughters, Rhyan and Skylar, into the world. Playing and creating are the favorite family past times. Whether it be making a mess while painting, drawing, or working on some kind of visual art project, or singing together while Sean plays the guitar, creating is the name of the game.
Some of the ministries we have served:
The Church of the Holy Cross in Mt. Pleasant, SC
South Side Anglican Church, Pittsburgh, PA planting a church reaching out to the bars and tattoo shops in the South Side of Pittsburgh.
Shepherd’s Heart Fellowship serving the poor and homeless in Pittsburgh with our mentors, Mike and Tina Wurschmidt,
Side By Side ministry to single moms out of St. Stephen’s Church, Sewickley, PA
Mockingbird Ministries starting conferences and publications for this pop-culture Gospel resource ministry
The Bowery Mission working with the poor and homeless in New York City
Anglicans for Life, Sewickley, PA serving women in grief or crisis around pregnancy
Make a donation.
Our annual goal is to raise $175,000.
We need your help.