Author: The Rev. Jason A Burns, Deacon

I grew up in Turners Falls, MA and is a graduate of Turners Falls High School. I attended college at UMass Amherst where I received both a Bachelors in History and a Masters of Education. My home parish was St. Andrew’s in Turners Falls, which has since merged with St. James in Greenfield to become Saints James and Andrew. I discerned a call to ordained ministry around 2002, but had no idea what to do with the call so I pushed it aside, but finally answered it in 2016. After attending the Province 1 School for Deacons, I was ordained to the Holy Order of Deacons in March 2020, just a week before the entire country was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I am a high school history teacher by day and my diaconal ministry focuses on supporting teens and young adults in their growth and learning as well as in preventing suicide. I am passionate about removing the stigma which surrounds mental illness, which is directly linked to suicide, for several reasons. The first being my own struggles with mental illness, which often keeps me from engaging with people right away, but with a little bit of time you won’t be able to get me to stop talking. The second reason is the people I have known who have ended their lives because they did not receive the treatment they needed. I do not hide my own struggle because I want to model how important it is to be open about who God made us to be.