Staff & Vestry – St. Barnabas’ Episcopal Church

The Rev’d Kenn Katona, Rector

Born into a Roman Catholic family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, The Rev. Kenn Katona did not initially like attending church. At one point in his journey, he even made a deal with his parents that if he got confirmed, he could stop going to church. Fr. Kenn didn’t darken the doors of a church again until he was 19 years old. He had asked a girl out on a date and though she said yes, there was one condition. He would have to go to church with her first. This was Fr. Kenn’s first time attending an Episcopal church; and though things didn’t work out with the girl, the church would remain a permanent fixture in his life from that point forward.

Fr. Kenn says that, “The liturgy was familiar, so I was comfortable with that, but the church just had an excitement and this feeling of being alive that I had never experienced before.” Fr. Kenn decided to check things out further, eventually finding community and purpose within The Episcopal Church. A year later, he joined an ecumenical Christian missions organization which took him to Texas and Louisiana where he participated in short-term missions work in several towns and cities. Additionally, as a missionary, Fr. Kenn also spent two months in Mongolia volunteering in orphanages, working in soup kitchens, and working with music and drama teams at a local church. During his time in Mongolia, Fr. Kenn braved temperatures of negative 50 degrees and lived in a yurt which was a mile and a half up a snowy mountain where there was no running water. For this reason he is confident that he and his family will handle the winters in Delaware without a hitch.

Fr. Kenn is a graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), where he developed a love of church history, especially the history of the communities that produced the four gospels. He has been called a sparkplug for the church and hopes to energize, and communicate an exciting new perspective of what it means to build the kingdom of God in the 21st century.

Sister Cassandra Norsworthy, Pastoral Assistant

Sister Cassandra has been a member of the Anamchara Fellowship since 2004. At St. Barnabas’ she has a particular ministry to the sick and homebound. She is also a Stephen Minister Leader. Cassandra, a native of Virginia, has served in several leadership posts both in the Diocese of Southern Virginia and in the Diocese of New Jersey. She is retired from a varied secular career, including work as a paralegal in real estate title and escrow. She serves as Chaplain at St. Barnabas’ Episcopal Church and leads the Pastoral Care Group.