Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Spring 2012 Issue | Page 22

BEFORE THEY WERE PRIESTS
EMILY CHERRY
Before they were priests, they were doctors. They were lawyers, actors,
accountants and soldiers. The priesthood is somewhat unique in that, more often
than not, people come to seminary from previous careers. In other words, they
explore a first vocation before following a call to an ordained vocation. Each path
of discernment is as unique as the individual who navigates its twists and turns.
Here are four Virginia priests who heard a call to a second career.
When she was a girl growing up in
California, ANN GILLESPIE knew
what she wanted to be: “I saw ‘Sound
of Music’ and I thought, ‘Julie Andrews
is who I want to be.’” And she shaped
her life to lead in that direction –
participating in acting classes and
theater in high school, then enrolling
in acting school in New York before
moving to Los Angeles with her
husband to become a full-time actor.
Most recognized for her role as Jackie
Taylor, the drama-heavy mother of Kelly
Taylor on “Beverly Hills 90201,” Gillespie
also had roles on “Star Trek,” “Gilmore
Girls” and “ER.” “It was a great way to
make a living, a great way to raise kids,”
said Gillespie, a mother of two.

But, as time wore on, “what was
coming to me was less satisfying,
at the same time as my own values
were crystalizing.” As she grew more
frustrated with acting, she grew more
in touch with a practice of yoga. “I was
really starting to cast my net and say,
‘I’ve got to figure out what’s next.’”
And whatever that would be, it would
“combine the ritual and pageantry
of my first love – theater – with the
transformation and healing of yoga, my
second love.”

The self-proclaimed “spawn of
Episcopal clergy,” Gillespie grew up
in a church-going household and had
considered a call to the priesthood.
In the mid-1980s, in fact, she spoke
with a female priest at her parish, and
expressed that she felt stirrings of a call
to ordination. The priest responded,
“Oh, it’s so hard, if you can do anything
else, do it.”
20

“I look at that actually as real
providence,” said Gillespie, “because
I was in no way ready to accept or
process the ramifications of the call
at that point in my life.” But, over
20 years later, the time at last felt
right. “Finally, I just surrendered,”
said Gillespie. “The lovely thing is
that doors have kind of flown open
to me since I said ‘yes’ to God in this
way.” Gillespie and her husband, Jeff
Allin, moved their family to northern
Virginia in 2004 so she could enroll at
Virginia Theological Seminary.

Now, as priest associate at Christ
Church, Alexandria for over four
years, Gillespie transfers some of her
skills from her acting career to her
vocation. “Actors have to step inside
other people’s skin,” she explained. “I
feel like I’ve been a student of human
nature for a long time, and that has
been really helpful.”

And of her career as an actor? “I
don’t think acting was the wrong call. It
was an early call.”
NORMAN WHITMIRE had several
inclinations that he was headed
toward the priesthood when he was
young. Before he enrolled at Harvard
University with dreams of pre-medical
studies and cardiothoracic surgery,
his grandfather, a Baptist minister,
informed him, “You’re going to be a
preach \