St. Barnabas Rector Carries Out Call to Serve the Vulnerable

The Rev. Audrey Sutton, rector of St. Barnabas in DeLand and an abuse survivor, has translated her personal passion for safety and justice into a robust ministry focused on anti-trafficking and abuse prevention. Her recent appointment as a Province IV co-link for the International Anglican Women’s Network allows her to advocate globally for gender equality and the eradication of gender-based violence. To support these efforts, she recently produced a podcast series for the U.N.’s 16 Days of Activism campaign and will represent her diocese and the IAWN at the United Nations in March 2026.

Human trafficking.

The Very Rev. Audrey Sutton’s passion for safe church, abuse prevention and other related topics ignited with those two words, which she said dropped into her heart “like a strike of lightning.” God planted them there in morning prayer during her service as an associate at St. Phillip’s, Frisco, Texas.

Those two words, and a series of divine appointments only hours apart, launched her into what became a full-blown anti-trafficking ministry in her former parish that continues to this day. However, her commitment to address tough topics goes back further – to a tragic history she has no qualms about sharing. “I was a kid who wasn’t kept safe,” she said. “As an abuse survivor myself, I am deeply passionate about making safe spaces for young people, for vulnerable people. We can’t grow into whom God intends us to be if we cannot flourish safely.”

Sutton serves as rector of St. Barnabas, DeLand; newly elected dean of the Northeast Deanery; and co-chair of the Safe Church Commission for the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida. Now, she is carrying her zeal into a new role: a September 2025 appointment by the Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe, presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, as Province IV co-link for the International Anglican Women’s Network.

The IAWN, comprised of Anglican women from across the globe, meets quarterly via Zoom and “works together to promote gender equality, the participation of women in all levels of decision-making throughout the Anglican Communion and support those working to eradicate gender-based violence, including human trafficking,” Sutton said. “Women and girls should have access to health care and education; they should also live free from hunger and environmental abuse.”

The provincial links serve as liaisons between the Steering Group of the IAWN and the provinces, specifically to bishops, women’s groups, individuals and programs that affect women.

Her appointment, approved by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Justin S. Holcomb, came about through a chain that began with him. After the bishop traveled to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, to attend the Anglican Safe Church and Leadership Conference 2024, he introduced her to one of the contacts he made there: Mandy Marshall, gender justice officer at the Anglican Communion office. Marshall in turn introduced her to the chair of the IAWN, the Rev. Helen Van Koevering, rector of St. Raphael the Archangel, Lexington, Kentucky, who asked if she would be interested in serving as a provincial co-link alongside the Rev. Annalise Castro Pasalo, vicar of three churches on the Windward side of O’ahu, Hawaii, in Province VIII.

The St. Barnabas rector wasted no time in moving to active involvement with IAWN. Each year, the organization joins the U.N.’s global campaign, 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, offering various resources, primarily through its Facebook page, for churches to use and distribute.

As Sutton heard about this year’s campaign, God gave her the idea to create a related podcast, brief videos that could be posted to the IAWN Facebook page. She and Pasalo developed an outline of speakers and information they wanted the videos to communicate, which, after group review, Sutton sent to the four chosen speakers.

“They did their videos and sent them back to me,” she said. “Then I went in with a video editor and added in graphics and music and finished them up, and we posted them as podcasts. Each podcast was released on a particular day as we went through the 16 Days of Activism, and each had a number of resource links. … It was a fun project to be a part of. I’m hoping we can do it again next year.”

In addition to her church and diocesan responsibilities, Sutton looks forward to March, when she will represent the diocese and the IAWN at the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at the U.N. headquarters in New York City. “I am hoping many of the links from the IAWN will be there,” she said. “We’ll get to network and talk with other people about initiatives that they’re involved in. … I’ll be able to connect with people outside of the church and see what people are doing in other parts of the world, in other places of professional life, education and more.”

“I’m just so excited to see how God is using this weird passion that he placed in my heart,” Sutton said. “I would never have seen it going in this direction.”