St. James Anglican pastor to become deacon

Cathie Young, the discipleship pastor at St. James Anglican Church, loves working where she has worshiped for the past 20 years.

“You can walk down the halls and smell God,” Young said. “Yes, God has a smell.”

After working at St. James for the past 16 years as a lay person, Young will be ordained as deacon 10 a.m. today at St. James in a ceremony officiated by Bishop Evans Kisekka, of the Anglican Church of Uganda, and Bishop John Guernsey, the U.S.-based missionary bishop from the Anglican Church of Uganda.

Guernsey made international headlines last month when he was ordained to serve the church’s 26 Ugandan congregations in the United States.

“An ordination is always an important event because it means we’re growing,” said longtime St. James member and volunteer Tom Carmody. “It’s nice to have some good news to celebrate instead of all the bad.”

St. James got embroiled in a land dispute with the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles County after the church cut its ties with the diocese. The California Supreme Court in September agreed to hear arguments in the case. Also, there’s been much debate about homosexuality within the Episcopal Church since V. Gene Robinson, a gay man, was consecrated bishop of New Hampshire.

Two men, one from an Anglican congregation in the Inland Empire and one from Arizona, also will be ordained as priests in the ceremony today. More clergy ordained in the Ugandan Church will be vital to the growth of the church in the United States, Young said.

“With the new Anglican presence, there was a sense that more lay people would be called to ordained ministry,” Young said.

A red satin stole embroidered with a Celtic gold cross sat folded in Young’s office last week in preparation for her ordination.

The stole is made to lie diagonally across her chest. In six months to a year, Young will put the stole away and don one that hangs over her neck — a priest’s stole.

St. James vestry member Ryan Grady said he is confident Young will make a good priest. Grady and his wife took a marriage course before they were married at the church taught by Young and her husband.

“She is a remarkable woman in Christ,” Grady said. “Her gifts as a pastor are inspiring to me and to others.”

Young said she will stay at St. James after attaining priesthood. She said she feels her calling is still at the church she already has spent so many years serving.

“The church is growing as people grow in worship,” Young said. “For me, it is rewarding to see people set free from hurts and wounds here.”

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.