After six-and-a-half years with the Center for Reconciliation (CFR), most recently as U.S. and student programs coordinator, Dayna Olson-Getty will depart the center to serve as associate pastor of Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, Va.

“Dayna has been a precious gift to the CFR in her pastoral care for students, excellent work with the Summer Institute, and the rich spirit of hospitality and theological acumen she brings to all she does," CFR Director Chris Rice said. "I will greatly miss her presence as a colleague and friend.”

Olson-Getty said that after graduating from Fuller Theological Seminary more than a decade ago, she "felt a strong calling to pastoral ministry" and hoped to become a pastor. But it was not until now that she felt it was the right time to pursue her calling.

"I expected that I would be called to a church soon after I finished seminary, but that didn't happen. Instead, my husband Eric Olson-Getty and I have had seven-and-a-half years of life in Durham that have been filled with rich friendships, many wonderful colleagues, and more love and life than we could have imagined," Olson-Getty said. "We've come to deeply love this city and are grateful beyond words for the friends God has given us here."

Among Olson-Getty's contributions to the CFR have been organizing and managing the annual Summer Institute—which brings together clergy and practitioners from across the country to spend a week immersing themselves in study, reflection, worship and rest—and leading students on the Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope—which explores places of pain and hope in the United States and seeks to help students live in more authentic community when they return.

Olson-Getty said that she hopes to bring the theological frameworks she learned at the center into her pastoral ministry at Community Mennonite Church.

"I'm really grateful for the ways that the CFR has helped me connect to the global church, to what God is doing in other parts of the world, to people with whom I have a surprisingly large amount in common because we are brothers and sisters in faith," said Olson-Getty.