Sharon Ripley left the Catholic Church in her teens, and had an encounter with Christ in Protestantism that led her to pursue ordination in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. However, the deep pull towards the necessity of unity and truth and authority led her to reconsider the Catholic Church she had left decades before. Since returning to the Catholic Church in 2010, she has worked as a lay catechist and as part of her parish’s outreach to encourage people to return to the sacraments.