How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, racism, and antigay bias.

Budde was born Mariann Edgar in 1959 in New Jersey to her Swedish American mother, Ann Bjorkman, and her American father, William Edgar. Budde remained in New Jersey for much of her childhood before moving to Colorado with her father, an experience that she documents in Chapter 1, “Deciding to Go.” Her father’s second marriage ended, and Budde heard the call to return to her mother and New Jersey, which also allowed her to return to the Episcopal Church, a crucial step in her faith journey. After graduating high school in New Jersey, Budde attended the University of Rochester, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in history. She earned her Master of Divinity and her Doctor of Ministry degrees from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1989 and 2008, respectively. She became an Episcopal deacon in 1988 before becoming a priest in 1989. In 1986, she married Paul Budde, with whom she has two sons.

Budde served as assistant rector at a church in Toledo, Ohio, after finishing her Master of Divinity degree. She went on to be rector of a church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a position that she held for 18 years until she was elected the ninth bishop of Washington, DC, in 2011.