“From age 15 to about age 30, I was involved in charismatic churches,” Zimmerman says. “So I did that for a while, but then that kind of played out for me, and I wanted to see how to keep going deeper, and I remembered the Episcopal church and its rhythm of prayer.”
That aspect connected to the same side of his personality that had found an academic interest in ancient history.
“In ancient history, we studied … all this ritual about life, and I was involved in churches that had no ritual. They actively avoided rituals. And then I stopped and realized that we had dating rituals, we have mourning rituals, we have eating rituals, we have all these rituals, why in the world wouldn’t we have religious rituals, because they help keep you grounded and centered,” Zimmerman says. “I remembered the Episcopal church was full of ritual, so I came back to the Episcopal church.”
The church he came back to was Lawrence’s Trinity Episcopal, which was the only one in town at the time. It took nearly a decade for Zimmerman to go from returning to the Episcopal denomination to wanting to be a part of it as a priest.
“It was always kind of on my mind, even as a teenager. I never could see how that would happen. I always say, ”˜God wouldn’t subject the church to me in my 20s.’ I just don’t know if I would have been a very good asset,” he says, laughing. “I took the Jonah route ”” I fled the call and took the scenic route to ordination rather than straight through. Which I’m glad about ”” I wouldn’t have wanted to have tried (this) in my late 20s. It wouldn’t have worked for me.”