Do you remember that 71 degree day in January?
It’s one that the Rev. Virginia Ogden will never forget, since that was the day she was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church.
When I heard the weather report for the week, I felt myself relax, Ogden said. `I was able to really be there for the ceremony. I could really feel it.`
The moment when she really started to feel things, she said, was when she came around the corner that led her into the sanctuary of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Delmar and saw 300 people ready to celebrate with her.
The service took place on Epiphany, the day that the three wise men came to see the infant Jesus, and the official end of the Christmas season in the Christian religion.
`It was perfect,` Ogden said. `That is a day of awakening; a gift of light.`
It was a day of firsts for more than Ogden, since the Albany diocese’s new bishop, the Right Rev. William Love, performed his first ordination.
`When the bishop anointed my hands with oil, it was a very powerful moment,` Ogden said. `That’s when I became a priest.`
Becoming a priest is something that Ogden, 57, had dreamed about since she was a little girl, raised in the Roman Catholic Church.
`I wanted to be an altar boy,` said the Bronx native who grew up in Yorktown Heights, Westchester County. `I went to Catholic school, and I always wanted to serve the Lord. Beyond prayer, though, there wasn’t much for women to do.`
Ogden came to college at the University at Albany, and stayed put. After college, she did some church shopping, and after attending a service at the Episcopal Cathedral of All Saints in Albany, said she `clicked with the service.`
`That was the late 1970s,` she said. `I was formally accepted into the Episcopal Church in 1984, and came to St. Stephen’s in 1990.`
Ogden said she first felt the call to priesthood in 1993.
`The church had not yet ordained a woman, but I could see all the pieces falling into place,` she said.
But the call had to be put on hold for a while.
`I was teaching and raising a family,` Ogden, who with her husband, Ken, has two daughters in their 20s, Andrea and Alicia.
From 1996 to 2001, four close relatives died.
`We also moved, and I had two job changes,` Ogden said. `Seminary wasn’t going on top of that. It wouldn’t have been successful.`
When she was 55 and retired from her job as a math teacher at Berne-Knox-Westerlo High School, Ogden did go full-time to seminary.
`Mother Susan Bowman came to speak during a St. Stephen’s Thursday in Lent program,` Ogden said. `What she said really resonated with me. I remember standing at my bathroom sink, brushing my teeth and looking out at the cornfields. I burst into tears, and knew that this time, the answer was yes.`
Ogden’s ordination comes at a time of some difficulty for the American Episcopal Church. When the Rev. Gene Robinson was elected bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003, it provoked controversy about the role of homosexuals in the church, since Robinson is in a committed gay relationship. Conservative factions are considering a move away from the American church.
`It’s important for a church to stand on doctrine,` Ogden said. `But I don’t think it’s right to say, ‘this is a gay church, this isn’t a gay church,’` Ogden said. `What I like about the Episcopal Church is that we agree to disagree. I can be in fellowship and communion with people I don’t agree with. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and not cookie cutter molds. We’re all different people, and God made us all.`
People come to a church when they’re hurting, Ogden said, and political issues don’t drive that.
`Something brings people to church,` she said. `I think it’s the spirit of God.`
Ogden said that being in a church community can boost spirituality, and noted that statistically, church attendance is down in the western world.
`People embrace a spiritual component, but struggle with an organized church,` she said. `But you can really grow spiritually in a community. A community sustains us when we wax and wane spiritually.`
A community is also called to support its members, and that’s something Ogden is actively doing.
`Mother Ginny will be a very pastoral, caring priest with a strong sense of vision,` said the Rev. Darius Mojallali, rector of St. Stephen’s. `Her sermons are biblical and animated.`
Ogden said she feels particularly drawn to caring for the elderly, which Mojallali said is important.
`She has a passion and a heart for the vulnerable and the elderly,` he said.
`We need to make sure we don’t undervalue our elderly as we support young families.`
Ogden’s was the first ordination of a priest at St. Stephen’s in a long time. In 2002, Bob Heighton was ordained a deacon at St. Stephen’s.
`Ginny’s ordination is a reflection on the parish,` Mojallali said. `There’s a sense of pride that we’ve raised up this person. I’m proud that we’re a church that supported a woman. God calls women to serve, and I’m excited that this went so smoothly. Not one person said anything about the fact that she’s a woman.`
Annie Mellet, a St. Stephen’s parishioner who serves on the church’s vestry, said it was significant that a woman was ordained.
`It’s always nice to have a woman in that position, with a woman’s point of view,` Mellet said. `It adds another facet to the ministry.`
Ogden will serve as an unpaid curate, or assistant priest, for a year.
`There’s a sense of collegiality, with Ginny, Deacon Bob and me,` Mojallali said. `Ginny has a real sense of leadership, and could easily stay for four or five years. But there’s a lot of potential for her, and she’ll be coveted by other parishes.`
`I wanted a mentorship for about a year,` Ogden said of her decision to stay at St. Stephen’s in an unpaid position. `I want to work with the elderly, who I refer to as the ‘young at hearts.’ They need an advocate. I also like the people at St. Stephen’s. I never felt I had to put on a faCade here. The feeling is genuine. People rejoice with you, they cry with you. You can be yourself.`
It’s clear that Ogden is settling into the routine of her job, as the sexton comes to ask for more closet space, and a question arises about the use of the choir loft. Through all of this, one thing remains with Ogden.
`There’s a deep joy,` she said of her new role. `I’m hoping to hold onto it.`
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