Alyssa Sali was baptized into the Christian Reformed Church and raised in Baptist churches in Sioux Falls, SD. She began to feel a call to ordained ministry as early as 5th grade but was not in a tradition that ordained women. So she chose to exercise her ministry in a lay capacity throughout her life. In college in Chicago, Alyssa became enamored with wondering about the Christian story, so she changed her major to Biblical and Theological Studies earning both a BA and an MA.

After college, Alyssa and her husband Judah moved to his hometown in Washington State. From there, babies in tow, they moved to Jalisco, Mexico for 10 years, working with various evangelical churches to coordinate short-term missions groups. In the local Baptist congregation, Alyssa leaned into ministry with children, youth, women, couples, and worship, all the while homeschooling her children.

In 2017, the Sali family relocated to Atlanta. They also relocated spiritually and were received into the Episcopal Church in April of 2018 at St. Bede’s, Atlanta. Alyssa began work as Director of Children’s and Family Ministries in the fall of 2018. Subsequently, she began working as a trainer with the new inclusion module of the diocesan Safeguarding God’s Children training.

With encouragement from ordained and lay folks at St. Bede’s, Alyssa entered the discernment process in the Diocese of Atlanta in January of 2020 and was made a postulant to the priesthood in April 2021. Beginning in June of 2022, Alyssa will be studying in the Low-Residency MDiv program at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, CA. This will mean trips to California for intensive classes twice a year and fitting the rest of her online education into her life here in Atlanta.

Alyssa is passionate about leaning into the Episcopal Church’s welcome and belonging for all, especially native Spanish speakers, the LGBTQ+ community, and folks from other Christian traditions who are looking for a home. She also really loves deep conversations with people she’s just met–on the bus, at church, or at a PFLAG meeting.

As Holy Trinity Parish (HTP) approached its 100th anniversary, the parish wanted to establish a lasting project and from those conversations came the Holy Trinity Centennial Scholarship. Each year HTP gives one or more scholarships to persons preparing for ministry in the Episcopal Church or the wider Anglican Communion.

The Scholarship was established on HTP’s centennial in 1992 and the first scholarship was given in 1994. Over the years HTP has awarded thousands of dollars while preserving the corpus of donations. This year is the 30th anniversary of the scholarship’s founding.