Parish Priests

Mike Shea

Stephen Elkins-Williams

Like many people at the Chapel of the Cross, Stephen Elkins-Williams did not begin his spiritual life as an Episcopalian. Born in California to Roman Catholic parents, his family moved to Missoula, Montana, when he was 13. His father worked for the U.S. Forest Service, and Stephen first attended Catholic school there. During those formative years he began his journey to the priesthood, culminating in 14 years in the Jesuit Order, the last three as a priest.

In 1978 after doing campus ministry at Seattle University, Stephen found himself called to marriage. He and his wife Betsy found work together as youth ministers, by chance, at an Episcopal parish in Seattle. Stephen also worked as Director of Lay Ministry and began to preach monthly. There they became members of the Episcopal Church and after four years Stephen was received as a priest.

Betsy's home was Durham and by 1982 Stephen says, "she was ready to come back to the South." The first of their two sons had been born and now, as an Episcopal priest, Stephen found he had job mobility. An ad appeared for a position at the Chapel of the Cross and Stephen asked Betsy if Chapel Hill was near Durham. Stephen laughs as he remembers her response, "Call that man up, right now!"

The Rev. Peter Lee was rector. He hired into Stephen into the parish ministry position. A year and a half after Stephen's arrival in Chapel Hill, Peter Lee was elected Bishop Coadjutor of Virginia. Lee warned him, "after a year you'll need to move on, although there is an outside chance they might call you to be rector." A year later, after a full national search, and 150 applicants, it was announced in July of 1985 that Stephen Elkins-Williams would indeed be the new rector of the Chapel of the Cross.

Since then, according to Elkins-Williams, it's been a learning experience. From handling a major embezzlement to leading a capital campaign and major building renovations to dealing with personnel problems, it's the job of the rector to handle it all, he says. Add to that the normal liturgical and pastoral duties, managing staff, serving on diocesan committees, and the mentoring of younger priests, and he continues to be challenged. Recently he added teaching a preaching course at Duke University's Divinity School to the demands of one spring semester.

After 22 years at the Chapel of the Cross Stephen reflects that he is still trying to work on individual priestly skills. Stephen turned 60 years old this year. And while the thought of retirement exists in the back of his mind he assures all, it is not imminent. He says he has too much yet to do, and work as the rector of the Chapel of the Cross remains challenging.

Tambria E. Lee

The Rev. Tammy Lee is the new Associate for Campus Ministry, replacing the Rev. Stephen Stanley, who moved to a parish in Roanoke, Virgina.

She is finishing her 11th year at the Chapel of the Cross, having begun work here the year prior to her ordination to the priesthood. Until taking her new position she had been Associate for Parish Ministry.

During that time there has been one constant, she says, "people in need, seeking assistance in the midst of crisis."

Of her new job she says she will be a priest working in campus ministry, not the campus minister. "The truth is", she says, "I will still be preaching, I'll still be teaching, and I'll still be doing pastoral care. The constituency for which I am responsible becomes anybody involved with the university. I am the pastor to the university."

Tammy Lee did not always want to be a priest. But she did have an interest in God. She, along with her family, had become Episcopalians while she was in 6th grade in north Florida.

In college, as an undergraduate at Florida State, she studied religion and English. Afterward, she went on to Yale and got a Master's degree in Divinity. From there she went to Hagerstown, Maryland, where she took a job as an Associate for Lay Ministry in a parish. She says it allowed her to do most things, except "I wasn't baptizing babies or consecrating elements, but I literally did everything, including marrying and burying people." It was there she felt called to become a priest and entered the ordination process. Eventually she completed her seminary work at Seabury-Western in
Chicago.

Tammy was ordained deacon and began looking for a job. She says, "I picked up a copy of The Living Church the only time the Chapel of the Cross had ever advertised in it, and I saw the position of Associate for Parish Ministry and called Steve and applied." She accepted a job offer in August of 1993 and was ordained to the priesthood a few months later.

Tammy is perhaps most noted for preaching outstanding sermons. She prepares intensively.

"If I preach all three services," she says, "the average time it takes me to prepare is anywhere from 8 to 16 hours. I always have two people who hear it first because, while preaching is about what I have to say and the Spirit working through that, it's something that's going to be heard by about 600 people. So I have one person read it for content and another for style and grammar."

Tammy says it's one of the most important things she does, "If I don't do a good job preaching, it's a problem."

Tammy has also benefited from her 11 years at the Chapel of the Cross. Originally she says, "I was only going to stay three years in parish ministry, then go on and study psychology. I've done a tremendous amount of growing up since I've been here. I like it here."

Victoria Jamieson-Drake

Vicky Jamieson-Drake hails from Toledo, Ohio, one of four kids from a close knit family. She was raised Presbyterian.

Her father's death when she was 16 had a profound effect on her. It set her on a lifelong quest for God and the meaning of life.

She started college early at Wellesley. She began studying comparative religion. "I have no idea what exactly set me off in that direction," she says, " but I was really intrigued." It led to a trip around the world in a foreign studies program to study world religions firsthand. Vicky traveled to Morocco, Israel, Iran, India, Sri Lanka, and Japan. She lived with families where she studied the religious cultures close-up. Her experiences in India would eventually lead her to the Episcopal priesthood.

Vicky became friends with a Roman Catholic priest who was also a member of the study group. While in India he was asked to say Mass for the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order headed by Mother Teresa. Vicky went with him. She was intensely moved by what she saw. She began to spend time with the missionary sisters. She was inspired by the sisters' work with the sick and dying of all faiths, so much so, she asked if she too, could work with them. "There was so much genuine love there it was palpable," she says.

She was granted a leave of absence from the educational group to do independent study and went to Calcutta. She says, "I stayed at the YWCA at night then would go to the Missionaries of Charity every morning for prayers and work. While there I inquired about becoming a sister and even spoke to Mother Teresa about it." She says she prayed about it. "I had been really inspired by the experience and that's what I wanted to do with my life, but it became clear I was not to become a Roman Catholic nun."

She completed her study program and returned to Wellesley where she graduated with a degree in religion. Afterward in Ohio again she tried out different churches, including the U.S. Roman Catholic Church still looking for the right one. She eventually decided on the Episcopal Church, finding it both, "sacramental and Protestant."

She told her bishop she desired to become a priest. Few women had yet become Episcopal priests. He was enthusiastic but cautioned her, "I can send you to seminary and make you a postulant, but I can't guarantee you a job."

She went on to Yale Divinity School, where she met her future husband, David, who was also at seminary. They married and were then off to Duke University, where David was to complete his doctorate.

Vicky moved her ordination process to North Carolina, transferring to Duke and completing her courses there.

Motherhood and ordination followed. Vicky became a priest in 1987.

She worked several years at St. Philips Episcopal Church in Durham, then served as vicar for the Church of the Holy Spirit in Greensboro. In 1994, Vicky decided to look for a church closer to her home in Durham. The new position of Assistant for Pastoral Ministry came open at the Chapel of the Cross. Vicky says, "It seemed as if the job description were written for me." She joined the staff in 1995, becoming full time Associate for Pastoral Ministry last year.

Vicky and her husband David have three children. David serves as the Director of Institutional Research at Duke. They live in
Durham.