Oct 20 2022 76 mins 1
Stephanie and Robyn are joined by Sharan to discuss her diagnosis journey and how the grief involved is informing her faith.
The Rev. Sharan Knoell is the pastor of Valley United Presbyterian Church in a small-town community that straddles the Pennsylvania - New York border. Prior to 2014, Valley United was three Presbyterian Church (USA) churches. Sharan walked them through the merger, selling a church building, and renovating and newly-constructing the third...across state and denominational borders. She has a Masters of Divinity graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and also has a Masters in Nonprofit Management from Eastern University. Sharan has an autoimmune disease of blood vessel inflammation, GPA vasculitis, that she was diagnosed with in 2018. She almost lost her life to the disease twice in 2018 shortly after diagnosis, but she relies on infusions and her kitchen-counter pharmacy to manage the disease today. A native of the Philadelphia area, she lives in upstate New York with her husband, Ty, and her beagle-Jack Russell rescue, Shiloh.
Resources:
Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness by Ilana Jacqueline
You Don’t Look Sick by Joy H. Selak and Steven S. Overman
The Wounded Storyteller by Arthur W. Frank
