Erminie George has wanted to be a priest from the time she was 17 years old.
But at the time, priesthood wasn’t an option for Episcopalian women in the territory, she said.
So she put off her dream, going to work for government instead.
But the situation has changed since then, in keeping with the Episcopal Church’s 1976 decision to admit women into the priesthood.
Last year, the Diocese of the Virgin Islands — which includes this territory and the United States VI — ordained its first female priest: Reverend Sandra Walters Malone, a Barbados native who has lived here for 20 years.
And on Saturday, Ms. George became the first female Virgin Islander to be ordained as an Episcopal priest.
“I always wanted to make sure that God’s work continues, because it’s out of Christ’s work that we had a wonderful community, a community that we call Christian community, and I would love to see that kind of spirit to come back to this territory,” she said after her ordination ceremony at St. George’s Episcopal Church, which she has attended since she was a child.
The proceedings were led by the Right Reverend E. Ambrose Gumbs, bishop of the diocese, at the climax of the three-day Diocesan Convention hosted by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Sea Cows Bay.
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