About Agatha Nolen (click for MP3 file)

My Story- God Speaks

Download a FREE copy of my book, WHY I AM AN ANGLICAN (pdf)

I have a special passion for the interconnectness of our relationships to God and with each other.

Insecurities, fears, and false idols prevented me from having intimate, fulfilling relationships. I traveled through three religions and two divorces arriving at an undeniable fact: every male relationship I'd had ended in a mess. I used indiscriminant intimacy to trick men into liking me, dating me and even marrying me. I was starved for male attention to confirm my worth.

Then I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. New and old friends engulfed me with unearned love. It was the most powerful emotion I had ever felt, to have people love me just as I was: broken, vulnerable, and scared.

I once again felt love freely given on a mission trip to South Africa. Twelve people taught me how to love as Jesus loves us, even loving me through a painful divorce in 2008. I've found a church community that nurtures the desires in my soul: to love, and to be loved.

I have written my memoir, CHASING MY FATHER, to share how I overcame my insecurities, fears, and false idols, embracing my holiness as a woman. It's a journey of transformation which continues; now I'm traveling a new road. Life still has challenges, but now I can meet the inevitable times of brokenness with calmness and peace, comforted by my reliance on God and the meaningful human relationships in my life.

I am zealous about helping others re-channel their earthly desire for independence and individualism into a dependence on God and full participation in meaningful relationshipswith the people in their lives.

I’ll post JOURNALS and PHOTOGRAPHY frequently on this blog. I welcome your comments to ensure a rich, robust dialogue. I am a “work in progress”, inviting you to travel with me on this journey as we learn to better love.

I grew up in Geneseo, NY in the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York, and now reside in Nashville, Tennessee.  I earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma and a Ph.D. degree from Tennessee State University. I played varsity Golf on the inaugural Women's Golf team at OU, 1974-1976 and have practiced pharmacy in New York, Oklahoma, Texas, and Tennessee. I worked for HCA Healthcare in Nashville, TN for 23 years and where I retired from full-time healthcare in 2020.

I give tours at the FRIST ART MUSEUM and have served on the Docent Advisory Group (2012-2014). I enjoy writing, art, photography, reading, golf, and conversation. At St. George’s Episcopal Church, I am a Healing Prayer Minister, taught in Sunday School classes on prayer, and travelled to South Africa on mission trips as well as Pilgrimages to the Holy Land and Greece and Turkey. My spiritual gifts are healing, evangelism, giving, exhortation and wisdom.

I walked my first Camino de Santiago in October 2019 with the United Thank Offering Pilgrimage and the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana. It was a faith-altering experience with a connection to St. John of the Cross in Avila. You can read about my Last Camino Day-Freedom.

In November 2019, a golden retriever named Santiago joined my family. He is named after my Pilgrimage so each day I recall the trip and the change in my life! In December 2021, Teresa, also a golden retriever came to join Santiago and me. Here they are together in a photo from March 2022. They are full of energy and love!

I enrolled at Duke University in Fall 2021 as a M.Div. candidate in the Divinity School. It is a hybrid program where I continue to live in Nashville and travel to Durham, NC three times per year. I am under discernment in the Episcopal Church to become a priest, deacon, or lay leader.