I am a parish priest.  I am a happy Jack-of-all-trades.  This is fortunate because I am the priest in a small parish on Long Island.  My journey to Long Island began in Oklahoma.  After earning a Master's degree in Rehab teaching I became a rehabilitation teacher of the blind with a state agency.  I taught cooking, housekeeping, crafts, and provided counseling and any other bits of information the men and women and children needed to know about living as a blind person. Answering “yes” to the call to become a priest involved change.  I was received into the Episcopal Church from the Roman Catholic Church.  I quit the job and sold a house.  I attended seminary at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, TX.  I was the only blind person in my class.  I arrived with some knowledge of computers, and adaptive equipment.  I used electronic reading aids and the computer to handle the academic work

All along the path there were many questions:  How can a blind person study and learn?  How can you preside at the table--you might spill the wine.  Maybe you should consider a specialized ministry.    While doing a unit of chaplain training I could finally say to the many questions about my call-I am called to be a parish priest.

I was assigned as a deacon to St. John the Evangelist church in Oklahoma City.  There was a parish school-serving children 3 years to 8th grade.  A permanent deacon was already teaching and serving as school chaplain.  I settled in to work around the parish.  I learned that I was fairly good as an administrator.  I helped to get the parish involved with a Habitat for Humanity building project. 

St. John's is Anglo-catholic. I celebrated daily Masses after I was ordained a priest.  Gracie, my guide dog, learned the correct places during the liturgy to stretch and to shake.  I found that although my theology may be Anglo-catholic, in many respects I am much more comfortable with a simpler style of liturgy.

At the end of my curacy I began to look for a church.  I knew I had the leadership skills and the drive to be a good solo priest.  So I looked for small rural churches that would welcome women and minorities.  I did not say anything about blindness on the resume.  I wanted the person reading my resume to finish it and not toss it aside.  In February I was trying not to panic, and not to get settled in for spring because I should be ready to move.  I answered a phone call from Riverhead, New York.  I was astounded to hear the little parish was on Long Island and near New York City.  When the warden offered to send digital photos of the search committee I chuckled and told him it would be a nice gesture but wasted, as I am blind.  I got the interview with the parish.  My visit was like coming home.

So what does a Jack-of-all-trades do in a parish?  I lead Morning Prayer, preside at Eucharist, I visit shut-ins and the sick.  Then there are the other odd things like planting tulips.  I explored the flowerbeds with the handyman who doesn't know plants to decree to him whether a thing was a weed or a "good plant".  I do some counseling. The really big job is facilitator, nodding as someone voices an idea and pointing them to the vestry person with the power to implement the idea.

You may wonder how a blind woman is able to do all these things. I download text files of the week's readings into a small computer with a Braille display.  I see the rest with my fingers, ears and imagination.  God takes it from there.