Joanna Hollis was the first woman from Bermuda to be ordained as an Anglican Priest and was on the Island to give the service at St. James Church. Here she talks to Mikaela Ian Pearman about becoming a priest and how Bermuda as accepted her as well as her belief that all people gay or lesbian should be allowed into the Church

When Joanna Hollis was growing up, she told her father she wanted to be a priest or a social worker. Like most children, they change their minds and instead of setting out to follow in the footsteps of her social worker mother and her father, Archdeacon Emeritus Arnold Hollis, she ended up teaching English to middle school students in Japan.

She then completed a master's degree at Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California in teaching foreign languages.

But she never left the church, attending regularly at St. James Church, while growing up and during her adult life and seven years after completing her masters, she was ordained in California and is now an Associate Rector at the Trinity Church in Santa Barbara.

Asked why she decided to be a priest, she said: "I think if he [her father] was something else, I may not be a priest today.

My father likes to tell the story of when I was younger and he asked me what I wanted to be. I said a priest and a social worker, both of my parents professions.

"Then I said that's not for me. After I got my master's degree and I was coming back to the US from Japan to teach Japanese I started to feel this is not where I'm supposed to be. I made the decision about talking about possibly becoming a priest."

Rev. Hollis taught Japanese at a middle school and high school in California for five years, after spending two years in Japan.

"I talked to my priest in California and we started the process slowly. The discernment process includes self-reflection and self-discernment, but it also equally includes community discernment.

"The church community both at the parish and the diocesan levels has to feel that the person is called to ordained ministry.

"If it is discerned by the individual, the parish and the diocese that that person is called, then he or she can begin seminary. Even after that there are a series of interviews and exams that have to take place before the person can be ordained."

Rev. Hollis is pleased that Bermudians have accepted her new role.

"I haven't encountered any negative reactions personally. The Bishop, Pastor White wrote me a very nice letter that I received when I<\p>was ordained. I have received a lot of congratulations.

"There's been a lot of support from women who are happy to see a woman in the pulpit and behind the altar. I think they are happy to finally see something like that. I think this is a good change."

Right now, Rev. Hollis is the Associate Rector at Trinity Church in Santa Barbara, California, and has no immediate plans to come back home despite the Anglican Church voting last summer to allow women priests to work on the Island.

The Reverend said when she first told her father, Rev. Arnold Hollis she wanted to be a minister, he said: "Are you sure?".

She also said he has supported her from the very beginning and is happy with her following in his footsteps.

Rev. Hollis attended the Church Divinity School of the Pacific where there were seminaries for multiple religions including Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Buddhist, Episcopal and Islamic.

"There are classes for the specific seminaries, classes with people who don't necessarily agree with some of the theology or LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender]. We all took classes together and you learn a lot. It's a pretty great place. I think that is the only group of seminaries that in a major way."

Asked on her view on the LGBT community, Rev. Hollis said: "I believe that if you baptise people then anybody you baptise should be able to become a deacon or a priest or a bishop.

"That's my stance. I don't believe you can baptise someone and then tell them no. You have already accepted them in.

"I believe in full inclusion on all levels whether it be laity, deacons, priests or bishops. We are all baptised into the one body of Christ.

"That's why if Jesus Christ was hired as a bouncer at a nightclub, he would be fired because he would let everybody in the well-to-do and well-dressed, the poor and the homeless, and those who are oppressed and rejected by society. He would exclude no one. God's Love is all-inclusive, and we should be as well."

As for advice she would give to young girls or women who are interested in becoming a minister, Rev. Hollis said: "My first advice would be don't let anyone tell you that you can't. Listen to your heart and don't make the decision on your own because the work of the church is not your own personal.

"This is the work for the people, the work of God. Find mentors that will support you either women mentors of they're available or male mentors who are supportive."