A Missouri Synod Lutheran when younger, I was confirmed a Catholic in 2000. After more than 40 years as a professional nurse and administrator in home care and hospice, I retired in 2009. I joined a group of women to form the Mary Magdalene, First Apostle Community, Saint Cloud MN.  

While God had probably been nudging me toward ordained ministry since I was  quite young, it was through my participation in forming this community that I found a  renewed interest in my own shaping of God’s call to ordained pastoral ministry. It took  my association with this community, served by the womenpriests of RCWP-MW for me  to realize that ordination, in the tradition that I’d chosen, and had grown to love, was  indeed, possible for me.

After I became a member of “Mary Magdalene, First Apostle,” I pursued my interest  in theological studies at St. John’s University. At first I thought this degree would allow  me to become a chaplain in a health-care field. But during my studies, I kept hearing a  call to the priesthood, and in 2014 I decided to pursue that goal in the RCWP  movement.  

I was accepted into RCWP in Fall 2011 and I discerned my call for years while I pursued theological studies at Saint John’s University School of Theology. Graduating  with the Master of Divinity degree in 2015, I was ordained a deacon in 2015 and a priest  in April 2016, in Minnesota 

Throughout my formation process, I was guided and supervised by womenpriests  from the Midwest Region of RCWP. The region covers Minnesota, Iowa, Idaho, Michigan  Upper Peninsula, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and  Wyoming.  

As women and as Catholics we take hope for a church in which the focus turns to the  power of God’s love and mercy. And we applaud the steps Pope Francis has taken to  move the church in this direction. One of my roles as a woman and a priest is not only to  say ‘God loves and forgives you,’ but offer a place at the sacramental table to all who  need and want to experience what it means to be a loved member of God’s family  without any caveats about who is ‘allowed.  

Although in 2017, I moved nearer to my children and grandchild in Driggs, Idaho, my  full participation in the MW region continues. I serve as the Regional Administrator to  the RCWP-USA Board of Directors Circle, and Regional representative to the Vision  Keepers Circle and the Compassion Circle. 

Offering my gifts for spiritual companioning, teaching, preaching, and administration  to an Episcopal parish in Idaho now, I am a volunteer who happens to be an ordained  Roman Catholic Womanpriest. Everyone at the church and in the Episcopal diocese  knows that I am. I also serve on the board of a local non-profit that supports people in  economic and personal crisis who do not qualify for state or federal services.  

I indulge my interest in nature through hiking and photography. I recently purchased a  used Eurovan fully outfitted for camping to expand the places I’ll go.