The need to do unto others propelled the Rev. Katie Gillett into ministry, and that calling now has led her to the Florida Panhandle.

A former member of St. Mary of the Angels Episcopal Church in Orlando, Gillett accepted a call as the associate rector for Outreach and Spirituality at Christ Church Parish, Pensacola, in the Diocese of Central Gulf Coast. She moved from Central Florida to the Panhandle and began her new position on Monday, June 11. Her first Sunday preaching and serving at the altar came on Friday, June 15.

She will be officially ordained into the Sacred Order of Priests on Wednesday, Aug. 29, at 6 p.m. at Christ Church. Bishop Greg Brewer of the Diocese of Central Florida will ordain her and celebrate Holy Eucharist. The ordination comes just seven months after she was ordained as a transitional deacon at The Cathedral of Saint Luke in Orlando.

“I assist the rector, am primarily responsible for providing clergy support to the areas of outreach and spirituality and have the opportunity to be part of many ministries of the parish,” said Gillett, who graduated from Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina, in May.

“I am very excited to be at Christ Church and am thankful for the many opportunities to learn, grow, and develop as a deacon and soon-to-be priest,” Gillett said. “I am excited to be part of the Christ Church family as we seek to be a loving family of Christians who, by God’s grace and spirit, pray, think, and serve in the name of Christ Jesus (our mission).”

Gillett said the church’s outreach mission is to serve God “by helping people in need of the basic necessities of life by following Christ’s mandate in Matthew 25, ‘ … for I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me …’”

Also a former member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cary, North Carolina, Gillett said she felt a call from God to be ordained while studying abroad in London. “I had a profound experience of God’s grace and love enveloping and clothing me during a service of Evensong at Westminister Abbey,” she said in an interview earlier this year. “It was at this moment I received clarity as to my vocation in life. Throughout my undergraduate studies, I strove toward being a physician for the sick and elderly; but at this moment, I realized I was called to be a physician of souls – a representative, leader and teacher for people to learn and grow in the knowledge of God’s infinite love and grace.”

Gillett also is a published author. Her article “Blessed Repetition” last year appeared in Anglican Episcopal House of Studies Perspectives for Duke Divinity School.

As associate rector at Christ Church, Gillett will serve under the Rev. Dr. Michael Hoffman, rector, in the Diocese of Central Gulf Coast under Bishop James Russell Kendrick. For more information on Christ Church, please visit the website https://christ-church.net on the internet.