Katie McCallister was ordained as a priest on May 24 in her home parish, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in South River. SOUTH RIVER — Church was the one constant that Katie McCallister said she had growing up; however, becoming a priest came as a humble surprise.
On May 24, McCallister, 26, was ordained as a priest in her home parish, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in South River.
“It was very meaningful to be ordained in the church I grew up in,” she said. “The coolest thing is, although the ordination was about me, it really was not about me at all.”
McCallister explained that the congregants at Holy Trinity currently have an interim rector, and the search for a full-time rector has been ongoing for two years. Last month, the congregants were able to witness McCallister, a fixture in the church, enter priesthood.
The journey to priesthood hasn’t been straightforward. McCallister went to elementary school in Old Bridge and spent the rest of her time in South Amboy, graduating from South Amboy High School in 2005.
“I was a troubled teenager,” she said, adding that she had dabbled in alcohol and a few drugs around the time her parents divorced.
“I was depressed. … What I know now is while everything in my life was unstable, the only part that was stable was going to church,” she said. “As an adult now, that time was meaningful. … The stability saved me.”
After high school, McCallister spent a few “confused” years at Middlesex County College in Edison, taking a full-time course load while working full-time at Sam’s Club, which was on Route 18 in East Brunswick at the time.
During the summer, she completed an internship with the Diocese of New Jersey, which led to self-discoveries, including what she would like to study in college — Family Studies and Human Development with a minor in Religious Studies. The internship was held at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Keansburg.
“It was … working with the soup kitchen, shelter and the kids,” she said, adding that the Rev. Alice Downs was instrumental on a spiritual and secular level.
It was her time at church that led her to the internship. McCallister said she remembers asking the Rev. Phil Casey, who was the pastor at Holy Trinity at the time — “Who says one can be a priest?”
“He was taken aback by my question,” she said. “But he had told me in the middle of the night that it struck him that I was not asking about him, but about me … something was there and I hadn’t realized it yet.”
That very same year, Father Casey received an email from the bishop about the new eight-week summer internship program.
“He asked how I would like to make $3,000 for the summer and, as a 17-yearold, it was all about making money,” she said.
McCallister said she enjoyed the summers of 2005 and 2006 in the program.
In the summer of 2007, the major she had selected led her out to the University of Arizona for four years.
“I was involved in campus ministries there and worked at the summer camp,” she said.
From September 2010 to May 2011, McCallister did an internship with St. Philip in the Hills Episcopal Church, which was a congregation of more than 1,000 people.
“It was a huge parish compared to my last internship at St. Marks, which had a tiny congregation of 30 people,” she said.
That is where McCallister went on her first hospital pastoral visit and home visit.
“It was scary and profoundly holy at the same time. … That was the first time I saw someone die,” she said. “I was scared and I had no idea what to say or do … no one really prepares you for that moment.”
McCallister said it’s all about relying on prayer and God.
“After that moment, I knew I never wanted to stop being around this,” she said.
After graduating from the University of Arizona, McCallister attended a seminary, earning her Masters in Divine Studies at the Theological Seminary in Virginia.
During her time there, she said there were powerful moments that occurred. One such moment was during the summer after her first year in 2012.
“One of the requirements is clinical pastoral education,” she said, adding she was stationed at Birmingham Hospital as the full-time chaplain for the trauma unit.
“I had regular hours visiting staff as a pastoral presence and I was on call,” she said. She was required to stay 12-hour days and sometimes overnight for on-call crisis situations. “Needless to say, that was a rollercoaster.”
McCallister said her first call at the hospital has stuck with her.
“A girl in her early 20s had come in at 3 a.m., dying from a car accident,” she said. “She was 24, the same age I was, and she was going the same path I was with church. In so many ways we were very similar.”
McCallister said it was a horrific, tragic and sad experience.
“The family was saying their last goodbyes, and I was ushering everyone out of the room when her father grabbed me, sobbing,” she said. “We just wrapped our arms around each other and we cried and prayed.”
McCallister said there are no words to describe her time in the trauma unit.
“It’s holiness and sadness wrapped in one,” she said. “That time was meaningful and powerful.”
McCallister said the rollercoaster was difficult at times. She said she even questioned if the path she had taken was right for her.
“I would call my sister Lauren in the middle of the night, telling her how unbearable and difficult it was dealing not only with death and illness, but also an injustice with the health care system,” she said. “She would just listen to me and let me vent.”
Then, on May 22, McCallister graduated from the seminary and two days later was ordained.
At 26 years old, McCallister said she is still growing and expanding even though she is now a priest.
“My journey into priesthood was a real surprise to my family, even me,” she said. “I think they were skeptical and confused at first, but I know they are very proud of me.”
She said her journey has had a ripple effect on her entire family, which includes her mom Robin, her stepfather William Kloos, her father Tom and her stepmother Virginia Adasczik, and her sister and brother.
On June 15, she began her career at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Tuscon, Ariz., as assistant to the rector for children use and family ministries.
She said she is elated about becoming a priest and nervous and blessed about what her journey may bring.
“It was a difficult decision in leaving New Jersey, but God has led me to Arizona where I am needed now,” she said.
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