As a child, LouAnn Pickering always knew two things – that she loved the
mysterious, magical feeling of worshipping in church, and that little girls like
her did not grow up to be priests.
Now that she is Vicar at St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church, Mother LouAnn likes to
tell the story of how her belief that ordination was an impossible dream changed
in a dazzling moment of recognition of God’s presence.
The story goes back to when her Methodist mother and Roman Catholic stepfather
decided to compromise on the religious upbringing of their blended family. That
was how 6-year-old LouAnn, her sister and two brothers ended up attending a
series of Episcopal churches – a new one each time the family moved to a new
town.
“There was one place that was a ‘smells and bells’ church – I fell in love with
the beauty and mystery of the experience,” she says. “I was so taken with all
this that I created an ‘altar’ in my closet. I’d go in there and feel very
reverent.” Then the deaconess of the church informed her that the priesthood was
for men only. “That was the day I took my altar down.”
Family life was “complicated.” LouAnn was 18 months old when her father, a
popular Iowa high school football coach, died in a car accident. Her mother’s
remarriage resulted in new siblings and frequent relocations for her
stepfather’s job. After finally settling in Portland in the early ‘70s, LouAnn
got an undergraduate degree with a double major in Communications and Education
from Pacific University in Forest Grove, married her husband Jim, and started
raising their two children.
Religion had no place in her busy schedule until – facing a need for children’s
activities and a chronic lack of money – she decided to take her daughter to
church “because Sunday School was free.” She chose a seat in the back of the
church, but when the priest began to celebrate the Eucharist, she dissolved into
tears. After the service, she found herself telling him the story of her life,
and receiving affirmation that the mystery and beauty of God’s love had never
left her. “I knew then that there was a God who was active in my world – not
long ago and far-away, but here with me.”
LouAnn joined the church, discovered a love for teaching Sunday school, and in
1985 became director of religious education in the Lower School at Oregon
Episcopal School. Students, families and those who worked with her soon affirmed
the vocation to priesthood that she had felt so long ago. In 1990, Bishop
Ladehoff and the Diocesan Commission on Ministry endorsed the unusual path of
“reading for orders” for LouAnn. It was decided that if she could move through
the same steps and pass the same ordination exams as seminarians, she would be
ordained priest.
LouAnn took graduate courses at the University of Portland in the evenings and
summers, spent a summer studying at the Episcopal Seminary at Sewanee, studied
on-line through CDSP and worked with a an academic advisor appointed by the
diocese. All of this was done while working full time at Oregon Episcopal School
and raising two small children. After 6 years of hard work, she was ordained
deacon in 1996 and priest in 1997. In 2004, she began her ministry at St.
Gabriel’s as part time Vicar, working 50% for St. Gabe’s and 50% OES. In July of
2007 she will begin serving St. Gabriel’s as full time Vicar.
Mother LouAnn continues to embrace God’s presence, including in her ritual for
preparing to lead weekly worship. This involves reading the “propers” (Bible
readings assigned for each Sunday) several commentaries and other resources and
allowing the information to “soak in” during the week. Saturday night finds her
sitting quietly (sometimes in a hot tub) thinking through the lesson wanting to
be taught. By Sunday morning she wakes up with just an outline in her mind. Once
she’s preaching, even she’s sometimes surprised at where things go, but the
congregation loves the combination of stories, experiences and characters that
materialize in her memorable sermons.
To Mother LouAnn, God directing her words is a marvel – but it’s nothing new. “I
discovered a call to do holy work,” she says. “So I’ve learned to rest in the
embrace of the spirit – for as our own St. Gabriel reminds us in Luke’s Gospel
‘with God nothing shall be impossible’!”
