Jennifer L. Walters

JENNIFER L. WALTERS

EPISCOPAL

I was raised Roman Catholic and felt called to the priesthood since I was a child.  I had always thought that it was my religious nature that made me feel so different from other kids.  Then, in college when I began to realize that I was lesbian AND Christian, my difference and sense of isolation became even more profound, though I felt embraced by God throughout.

In 1992 I was the first openly lesbian candidate for ordination in the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan.  I had received threats and at our church convention opponents called me the anti-Christ.  The bishop who ordained me in 1994 was charged with heresy.

My community made this stole and gave it to me to wear on my ordination day.

I give thanks for the love and support of my church community, and family.  It is only by the grace of God that I continue to serve as a priest in the church.

It is, indeed, "only by the grace of God" that Jennifer Walters is an Episcopal priest today, given the threat she endured and one of the only heresy trials to take place in the past century.  Jennifer is the chaplain at Smith College.  Her stole is covered with symbols denoting women in the Bible.

Martha Juillerat
Founder, Shower of Stoles Project
2006