‘We all need more love and kindness’: Alum builds bridges in a divided time

With his warm smile and witty demeanor, Jon Heinly ’17 M.Div. is easy to talk to. A resident of Lancaster, Pa., he’s enjoyed numerous adventures before settling into his job as Director of Donor Advising at Lancaster’s Public Library.

“I love working at the library and contributing to things that matter,” he said. “Returning to the community where I grew up makes me feel rooted.”

While most people equate Lancaster with the Amish and Mennonite communities, it’s home to quite a diverse population. According to the United Nations Network on Migration, the city was recognized as ‘America’s refugee capital’ in 2019 for resettling 20 times more refugees per capita than the rest of the nation. Heinly is proud of this history.

“Religious refugees originally fled Europe and found safety in Lancaster,” he said. “Today, the city is filled with generations of immigrants from Burma, Bhutan, DRC, and all over the world. There is also a strong MAGA base here, which has created some tension.”

This tension manifested in a bomb threat in 2024 at Heinly’s library, which was planning to host a Drag Story Hour. The library had to cancel the event.

“The bomb threat was traumatic and made national news,” Heinly said. 

Undeterred, Heinly continues his work to ensure that the library and all its staff fulfill their mission to serve the community with creative programming. 

“Ultimately, opposition to the event backfired, and the community rallied around the library in many ways, including our biggest fundraising year to date,” he said. “More importantly, we continue to ensure the library is a safe and uplifting place for everybody.”

In search of religious freedom 

Heinly grew up in a religious home. His parents were originally members of the Church of the Brethren, an Anabaptist group similar to Mennonites. 

“The Church of the Brethren is one of the numerous Anabaptists denominations with roots in the Radical Reformation era,” Heinly said. “That’s the term used for the Anabaptists, who believe baptism should be a personal decision made by adults. They also believe in following Jesus in a literal, personal sense.” 

In Europe, baptism records provided governments with information about who to tax and who to draft. This did not sit well with Anabaptists.

“Anabaptism began in Switzerland and rejected state oversight, which led to serious persecution,” Heinly explained. “Lancaster became a haven for those fleeing in search of religious freedom.”

Heinly shared how his family’s religious practices inform his engagement with the world.

“We went to church every Sunday, prayed before meals, and read devotions together,” he said. “There was a strong emphasis on peace and justice.”

When Heinly was in his teens and had to think about military registration, his family moved to a Mennonite Church.  

“My parents felt the Brethren in Christ Church that we were attending wasn’t emphasizing pacifism enough, so we switched,” he said. 

While attending a Mennonite high school, Heinly met a girl in art class who would later become his wife.

“Megan Leaman was in tenth grade, and I was in eleventh, and we started dating,” he said. “We’ve been together ever since.”

Heinly would go on to attend Eastern University outside of Philadelphia, majoring in theology and youth ministry. After graduation, Jon and Megan got married, and he worked as a Mennonite conference youth minister and school chaplain. But after seven years, he felt called to explore.

“I wanted a deeper theological challenge as well as personal growth, so I decided to go back to school,” he said. 

Life at Yale

Heinly was attracted to YDS because of its strong youth ministry program and its emphasis on chaplaincy. He recalled one of his first classes, Ministry and the Disinherited, taught by Frederick (Jerry) Streets.

“We read Jesus and the Disinherited by the theologian and civil rights leader Howard Thurman,” he said. “I loved the readings and discussions in that class—it captured the values I grew up with.”

Another peak YDS moment for Heinly came when the renowned Black liberation theologian James Cone (since deceased) came to speak in the school’s chapel.

“Cone spoke passionately about Jesus from the perspective of race,” he said. “He inspired me to become more active.”

Following graduation, Heinly and his wife did indeed become active. They moved to Bolivia and worked for an organization called A Breeze of Hope, which serves child and adolescent survivors of sexual violence.

“We did capacity building for the organization, and I also taught yoga,” Heinly said. “There was a lot of embodied work to help heal.”

The couple worked in Bolivia for three years with two organizations, forming close bonds that continue to this day.

“Living in a different environment helped me better understand what it’s like to be the ‘other,’” Heinly said. “It enhanced my sensitivity to outsiders.” 

Claiming identity

While in Bolivia, Heinly engaged in deep reflection and began to more openly identify as bisexual or queer. Although he is happily married, it has been an important step in acknowledging a part of himself that had largely been repressed. 

“I’ve known about this part of myself since the beginning of high school and talked openly about it with Megan throughout our relationship, but growing up in church culture made it harder to see myself clearly,” he said. “I did not have room to explore or delve into that part of my identity. Also, I was born in ’85. It’s a different world now.”

The act of owning his truth has made Heinly more comfortable in his own skin.

“Megan and I are both working to gain more authenticity within ourselves and the world,” he said. “We try to help others express their truths without shame.”

This truth includes places of worship: With a decentralized authority, there’s a range of acceptance of LGBTQ+ issues throughout Mennonite churches. Heinly was part of The Ministerial Leadership Committee for the Atlantic Coast Conference of Mennonite Church USA for five years, the body responsible for approving the ordination of LGBTQ+ pastors. 

“We did not just make a decision ourselves; we engaged the community in discernment and ultimately moved forward with officially allowing for the ordination of LGBTQ+ persons,” he said. “I had the unexpected good fortune of chairing the meeting when the decision was made. It was a very profound moment.” 

Todd Friesen is one of the pastors of Lancaster’s East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church and has known Heinly for over ten years.

“Jon and his wife began attending our church in 2016,” he said. “Some words that come to mind when I think of Jon are collaborative, humble, relational, and thoughtful.”

Friesen also emphasizes Heinly’s commitment to service and calls him “a deep soul with a real passion for justice.” 

“Jon always calls on our congregation to grow more progressive and inclusive,” he said. 

When Friesen went on sabbatical, he asked Heinly to preach occasionally. 

“Jon has one of these great minds that can synthesize big ideas in creative ways,” he said. “I recall one of his sermons that reflected on formative life experiences that often occur between our moving from ‘Point A’ to ‘Point B.’ I found a note where he wrote: ‘Sometimes a door opens and it is clear that we should step through it.’ I love that.”

These days, Heinly is dedicated to his work at the library, a job he began in November 2023.

“I love working at the library,” Heinly said. “It aligns with my values and feels beneficial to support a place that provides so much for so many.”

While Lissa Holland is the library’s Executive Director, she considers Heinly her mentor.

“Jon is a natural leader and is so positive and calm,” she said. “He’s also empathetic—a wonderful listener. He constantly helps me with decisions.”

Holland was especially grateful for Heinly during and after the bomb threat. 

“He stayed so even keeled that he helped calm me down, especially when someone also threatened to bomb my home,” she said. “He was indispensable to everybody. Thankfully, the police found no weaponry anywhere.” 

Holland also credits Heinly for manifesting one of her long-held dreams. 

“I’ve always wanted to have an outreach librarian, and Jon got us the grant money, so we can now take the library in various ways into the community, which is wonderful. It’s a real honor to work with him.” 

Grand slam

As Heinly continues his life’s journey and embraces various parts of himself, he has begun to participate in story slams. In fact, he was named the Best Storyteller in Lancaster at the city’s 2024 Grand Slam. His story focused on his YDS experience as a hospital chaplain at Yale New Haven Hospital. (Watch Heinly tell his story here.) 

“Parts of my chaplain experience were some of the more profound experiences in my life, so I held that for the grand slam,” he said. “The story meant so much to me, and I think the audience could sense that.”

In this award-winning story, Heinly spoke about a night during his chaplaincy when a man close to his age was in an accident. Heinly was one of the last people to speak to the man before a brain injury suddenly left him comatose. 

“When I spoke with him that night, he seemed friendly and upbeat,” Heinly said, his voice thoughtful and sad. “I had no idea he had a brain injury.” 

Heinly recalled the man’s mother sitting by his side, praying day and night. 

“When it became clear that her son—who was an organ donor—would not recover, she made the gut-wrenching decision to take him off life support, but what I found so amazing was that the man’s organs would go on to save thirty lives. It’s a tragic story enmeshed with divine beauty.” 

Heinly touches upon how his chaplaincy, and specifically that story, changed him. 

“This man gave new life to thirty people, and I was left wondering: How often do I misunderstand the significance of one person’s life, or even just a single encounter with someone? What endless assumptions do I make that are from my limited perspective?” he asked. 

The experience, he reflected, “taught me to be more present and to be careful about the judgments I make.”

At age 41, Heinly remains committed to personal and societal growth, whether he’s working at the library, spending time with family, engaging in church, or serving the wider community. 

“I don’t know what the future may bring, but I do know we all need more love and kindness in our lives,” he said. “I seek to bring that grace to others with an open heart. It may not always work, but at least I will try.”

Lauren Yanks ’19 M.Div. is a writer and professor and Founder of the Blue Butterfly Foundation, www.bluebutterflyfoundation.org, a nonprofit organization that rescues and educates women and children who have been trafficked and enslaved.