An image of Jo Schonewolf, a white person with dark hair, wearing a white cloth facemask and speaking from a tablet at a protest, against a background of trees. The words say, "Sacrament. Solidarity. Gospel. The ordination of Addie Jo Schonewolf."

Join the the Church Within A Church Movement as they ordain Addie Jo Schonewolf to a ministry of teaching, preaching, and radical community building. The ordination service will be a celebration of Jo’s journey to this moment and a commissioning for the work ahead. We’ll share music, words, and communion with all who want to join in.

The service will be held at the Amphitheater at Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center on Saturday, August 2nd, 2025, at 11am, with a reception to follow at the Lambuth Inn. You can attend in-person or virtually. Fill out the RSVP form below to help us get a head count for the reception or to receive the link for the service. And if you’re worried about getting to Lake J or affording a place to stay, let us know that too! We’re creating a fund to help everyone who wants to be there get there.

Want to help pay someone else’s way? You can give funds via CashApp, Venmo, or PayPal. Just specify that it’s for ordination travel when you send it over. If none of those options are ideal, reach out to Jo.

Travel Details

The closest airport to Lake Junaluska is Asheville. There is great travel information on Lake Junaluska’s website, including details about a shuttle that can be booked to and from the airport and Lake Junaluska.

You can book a room at the Lambuth Inn and walk just across the street for the service, or down the hill at the Terrace Hotel. You can also join others in booking an apartment with a kitchenette (a great pet-friendly option!). If you’re looking to book something outside of Lake Junaluska, you want to look for options in Waynesville or Maggie Valley.

About Church Within A Church

The Church Within A Church Movement (CWACM), meeting since 2001, organized in 2002, and incorporated in 2004, began as a grassroots resistance movement and response to the discriminatory, harmful, and oppressive actions of the United Methodist Church toward LGBTQIA+ people. Rather than continue to directly engage with the UMC to change its official position that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” (a position held from from 1972 to 2024), CWACM chose an alternate path: to be the fully inclusive and just church, now.

In that spirit, CWACM held the first Extraordinary Ordination in 2008. The Movement has evolved, wrestled and stretched into a justice movement offering place, healing, education and inspiration beyond denominational borders. A founding proclamation to be more than a single issue movement has manifested an anti-racist declaration of organizational intent, racial identity caucusing, extraordinary ordinations, justice ministries of presence, and community values including non-hierarchical shared leadership. The Movement gathers to engage, heal, and listen. We challenge assumptions of tradition and power. We embrace our heritage and value the gifts of our present: often messy, passionate, real, dynamic, and ultimately inspiring community-building and a structure of belonging through radical inclusion.