Two priests, both women. Both serving in the Diocese of Central Florida. Both ordained within days of each other by The Rt. Rev. Gregory O. Brewer.

Different ages, different gifts, different journeys. But The Rev. Laura “Lo” Cook and The Rev. Kay Mueller share a love of God, people and The Episcopal Church that transcends their differences and has uniquely prepared each of them for kingdom service. At their ordination services, Brewer’s encouragement to allow God to work through their individual personalities and gifts spoke to each one.

Bishop Brewer with The Rev. Laura Cook at her ordination, Oct. 6, 2022

Cook, whose ordination took place Thursday evening, Oct. 6, at All Saints, Winter Park, was baptized at St. Mary of the Angels, Orlando, by The Rt. Rev. John Howe and grew up at Church of the Messiah, Winter Garden, under the ministry of The Rev. Tom Rutherford. A graduate of the University of Florida with a bachelor’s and master’s in education, she spent several years teaching in inner-city Orlando.

God used a summer spent in Uganda during college to effect a dramatic change in her life. She returned there in 2017, working with a nonprofit that “worked to get kids off living on the street and into school and a home-life situation.”

“I always feel like my journey to the priesthood started there,” Cook said. “But in actuality, it started many years before. It was upon my return from Uganda that the priesthood was first part of the conversation, and I thought that was crazy.”

But when she mentioned the possibility to those who knew her best, no one else said it was crazy; in fact, they affirmed God’s call. She went through the diocese’s discernment process and, in 2019, headed to Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto, Canada. That country’s COVID restrictions left her stranded there for nearly two years of her three-year program. After graduating with her M.Div. in May 2022, she returned to Florida, where she began at All Saints on June 1. Today, she serves as the church’s associate rector for formation and missions.

“I’m a product of our diocese, so I want to say thank you,” Cook said. “And to anyone else who’s considering the priesthood or feels like God is doing a thing, whatever that thing is, it’s completely worth it. I didn’t say it would be easy, but it is, in fact, really worth it.”

Despite a week’s delay due to Hurricane Ian, family and friends from Church of the Messiah, All Saints and beyond came together for her ordination service, which she said was “beyond special.”

“It would have meant so much to me anyway, but to have so many people here after COVID and spending many, many months in isolation was very humbling,” Cook said. Although the entire service was deeply meaningful, she said Brewer’s encouragement that “you can be you” in ministry, empowered by the Spirit of God, remains in her heart.

Similar words from the bishop at Mueller’s ordination service, held on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 9, at Church of Our Saviour, Okeechobee, where she has been interim pastor-in-charge and is now rector, spoke to her. Brewer encouraged her to remain the person she is, someone who “is filled with the love of Jesus and has the capacity, as it says in the Gospel reading, to ‘look with compassion’ on the crowd of people who come your way.”

Bishop Brewer with The Rev. Kay Mueller at her ordination, Oct. 9, 2022 | Photo Credit: Jane Robards

Mueller’s road to ordination included raising two children as a single parent; a 23-year career in management with Peterbilt Motors Company and positions in Nashville, Dallas and the greater Philadelphia area; and a battle with breast cancer that began soon after she first heard God’s call to the diaconate. After completing treatment, she entered the discernment process and was ordained to the diaconate on Nov. 9, 2017, at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando. Assigned as a deacon to the church she now serves as rector, she had no intention of becoming a priest.

But God had other ideas. “In 2019, I started hearing the call to the priesthood,” Mueller said. At first, she chose to keep that idea to herself, thinking her age meant she shouldn’t pursue it. But in 2020, she spoke with The Rev. Canon Scott Holcombe and received confirmation of her calling. She began steps toward the priesthood and enrolled at Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin, to pursue her master’s in ministry, which she will complete next year.

For now, Mueller intends to continue ministering to the community of faith at Church of Our Savior, to “reach out to the dechurched and the unchurched so they can have a personal relationship with God.” Like Cook, she found herself “overwhelmed” by the love of her family, her parish family and friends throughout the celebration of her ordination.

“For the entire journey of getting to the priesthood, it was the love, the support and the encouragement of everybody along the path that kept me going, not only from my family but from my church family,” she said. “I felt 100% support and prayers.”

Brewer’s encouragement defines her ministry now and in the days ahead, Mueller said, because “We accept people as they are, where they are. And then it’s up to us to bring them along in their personal relationship with Christ.”