Meet the Guides
Rev. Jennifer Deaton
Jennifer happily imagines the Holy Spirit is a knitter, holding the presence of God together with the creation of the world in every stitch. This may be because Jennifer herself is a knitter in the time she has apart from tending two Episcopal congregations in the Mississippi Delta. Her husband, Charlie, is also a priest, and their grown son teaches high school English. Home is shared with Maisie the dog and with two cats, Isaac and Astrid, whose preferred spiritual practices are unabashed curiosity and extended sabbath rest. For Jennifer, pilgrimage combines wonder, delight, and holy invitation in ways that can transform life’s familiar ways into the pattern of God’s endless imagination.
Jenny lives for the moment her experience of the world shifts from ordinary to holy. She serves a community of faith in Hattiesburg and walks alongside students at the University of Southern Mississippi, where curiosity and kindness are spiritual practices in themselves. She finds joy in hiking wooded trails, paddling quiet rivers, and wandering with Bailey, her Westie and bestie. Smitten by her nephews and niece, Jenny treasures the ordinary magic of family. Pilgrimage, for her, is a way to gently unravel the tangled webs of life—to make space for mystery, meaning, and luminous joy . She believes wonder is not just a momentary feeling, but a vocation. A way of paying attention. A way of saying yes to God, again and again.