Fifty years ago the Rev. Wade Renn, a former employee of Boeing and the Atomic Energy Commission, decided that he needed to change paths. His new path drew him to the Episcopal priesthood:
The former Boeing and Atomic Energy Commission employee had spent the first part of his life helping to make weapons of mass destruction and participating in research that Renn would only describe as “nasty stuff.” His two physics degrees and scientific track record had earned him a spot in a prestigious Johns Hopkins think tank, but none of it brought him satisfaction.
None of it brought him peace.
“I realized that most of the things I was involved in had to do with killing and destruction, and I came to realize that something was wrong with that picture,” Renn told The Montclair Times…
But one of Renn’s most enduring stretches of work began with just a few sleeping bags. In 2005, he helped to form an ad hoc committee that provided sleeping bags to people they found sleeping in doorways and huddled on benches. From this humble beginning, MESH grew into a nonprofit organization that partnered with 17 local houses of worship to provide more than 10,000 meals to individuals in need in 2012.
Renn’s ministry to the homeless through MESH was recognized in 2012 by the Montclair Township Council in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The full story is available here.