It was a sunny day in May when Princeton Seminary alum, Commander John Owen (Th.M., 2010), chief chaplain aboard the naval ship U.S.S. Enterprise awoke to what appeared to be just another hot and humid day in the North Arabian Sea. On this particular day, however, something felt off to him. “Maybe it was biorhythms, maybe the planets were aligned funny...whatever it was, I was grumpy and short with people and generally unpleasant,” he said. “It was one of those days that you just want to survive and then put it behind you.”

However, little did Commander Owen know that the day would be one to remember. As he was walking back to his room after finishing a workout, he bumped into a group of Step Afrika! performers who were visiting the ship as part of a tour. Step Afrika! is a professional company dedicated to the tradition of stepping. It turned out that one of the performers, Brian McCollum (M.Div., 2010), also attended Princeton Seminary! At their unexpected reunion on a ship in the middle of the North Arabian Sea, “We hugged each other, screamed, and jumped around like a couple of schoolgirls. The others in the group had to tell us to quiet down,” said Owen.

McCollum and Owen had gotten to know each other during Owen’s first year at Princeton Seminary and had struck up a friendship. Before parting ways in Princeton, Owen told McCollum that he had wanted to have a chat with him and exchange contact information, but McCollum had graduated and left campus before they had the opportunity to connect. Commander Owen says that that had always weighed on his mind. “Shortly after I saw Brian, I asked him if he remembered that, and he did. I told him it looks like we’ll be able to have that chat after all,” said Commander Owen.

Click here to learn more about Step Afrika!, or here to read alum Brian McCollum’s biography.