“God called me as Katie Churchwell, not as Katie Churchwell once she gets perfected in xyz areas,” said Rev. Canon Katie Churchwell.
Churchwell is a 32-year-old, wife, mother of two and an Episcopalian priest—one of two, full-time clergy at The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter, in St. Petersburg, where she’s served as Canon for Community Formation since May, 2016. She’s petite and bubbly with platinum blonde dyed hair worn in a short pixie cut. The little tattoos that peek out behind her sandal straps, wristwatch and tanksleeved blouse seem more hip than priestly.
“She’s so cool and likeable,” said Amy Marshall, owner of Strands of Sunshine gift shop and board member of the Downtown Business Association (DBA), a board Churchwell serves on as secretary. “For someone who’s a priest, you kind of have this preconceived notion that you know, someone in ministry is going to be a certain way or maybe a little stuffy or pushing religion in your face, but she’s not like that at all.”
Marshall said she doesn’t know of any other churches that have ever joined the DBA. She thinks it’s pretty unique.
Churchwell’s boss agrees.
“I do think it’s unusual and it’s all Katie,” said The Very Rev. Stephen Morris. “In our tradition, we wear clerical collars,” he said. But, “you need to be more comfortable with people. Just people. Because we’re just people.”
Although Churchwell may not resemble the stereotypical priest, she’s very serious about her faith.
Ordained in 2011, Churchwell regularly performs traditional ministerial duties at the cathedral, such as providing counsel to church members, preaching sermons and teaching Sunday school classes. But her role is largely focused on community outreach—a brand new position at the church.
The ordination of women in the Episcopal Church began in the mid-1970s.
Churchwell said she thinks the ordination of women illustrates the Episcopal Church’s “three-legged stool” approach to faith—a balance of scripture, tradition and reason.
“If you remove one of the legs of the stool, the whole thing topples over,” Churchwell said. “Tradition may show us one thing, but then how do we incorporate reason into scripture and tradition?”
It’s clear that Churchwell takes on this approach in both her personal and professional life.
The home page of Churchwell’s personal blog, reverendkatie. com, bares the headline, “amma mama” followed by the sub headline, “priest, wife mom.”
Amma in Hebrew means servant, but also means mother,” Churchwell said. “Some women clergy use it for their title, Amma Jane for example. I don’t use it as a title, but am drawn to the meaning of the word.”
Since 2015, Churchwell has posted on her blog about everything from going to “sin city” Las Vegas during lent, to calling on her readers to pray for the cessation of gun violence.
“Justice is my passion,” Churchwell said. She feels it’s her role as a priest to use the authority and privilege of her position to help correct imbalances.
“Katie and her family walked in the St. Pete Pride Parade if I’m not mistaken,” Marshall said.
It’s true. In fact, Churchwell, her family and the cathedral all walked in the parade. The cathedral even had a booth at the festival.
Churchwell’s latest undertaking is bringing a program to St. Petersburg that provides health education, screenings and food access for communities deemed as food deserts called, Food Is Medicine. The year-long program launched in the Campbell Park neighborhood in August.
“For me it’s a justice issue that people don’t have access to food,” Churchwell said recalling the bible story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. “He fed them really good food,” she said, not “condensed cream of celery that somebody didn’t want that’s expired.”
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