Retired Navy Officer Becomes St. Anne's 1st Woman Priest
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
The seventh woman to earn Naval Aviator wings in March 1976 also was the first woman aviator to assume command of an Atlantic Fleet carrier aviation squadron. She is the first woman naval aviator to command a Naval Air Station - NAS Key West.
Prior to her retirement in October 2001, Capt. Linda Hutton served in the Pentagon on the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations.
During her 27-year naval career, she accumulated nearly 400 day and night carrier landings and more than 4,500 flight hours. She holds a bachelor's degree from Florida State University and a master's degree in government and national security studies from Georgetown University (1982), and has been awarded two Legions of Merit, three Meritorious Service Medals, a Joint Service Commendation Medal and a Meritorious Outstanding Service Volunteer Medal.
Today she is the first woman priest to be ordained in the Episcopal Church of Northern Indiana and the first woman priest for St. Anne's Episcopal Church on Market Street in Warsaw.
Hutton, 53, visited several parishes before settling on Warsaw.
"Two things attracted me," she said from her office in St. Anne's. "First, the most delightful surprise is the southern approach to hospitality. Easterners tend to come across brisk and cool, but not here. Second, there is a family environment, so many young people who went off to college and came back to work here. They have roots here.
"People build the opportunities, innovative thinkers create jobs. There is a wonderful influx of talent and youthful vigor and they have a desire to see the town grow. It's almost tangible and quite striking."
In residence since July, the Florida State Seminoles fan has found the lack of televised ACC and SEC football games the only drawback to living in the Midwest.
Drawn to the Episcopal liturgical style of worship while attending Florida State University, she said the decision to enter the priesthood was scary.
"I know it's strange for a Naval officer and a carrier pilot to say something is frightening. When I was a teenager, I had a friend whose 5-year-old cousin was hurt in an accident. He was in grave condition, it was doubtful that he would survive. The family was gathered at the hospital and the priest came in to visit. The family heard him say 'If you pray hard enough, he will survive.'
"There wasn't a family that prayed harder. The boy died. The family walked away from the church.
"My biggest fear is that some incautious remark of mine would be interpreted wrongly and someone would walk away from Christ."
The path to the priesthood is not a light undertaking.
And just because an individual hears a personal call to the priesthood doesn't mean the church hears the same tune.
"It's a rather laborious process. There is communication with a priest, a recommendation by a diocese," she said.
In Hutton's case, she was recommended by the Diocese of Virginia, the oldest church in the country, established in 1607. Then there is what Hutton calls the "extraordinary, excruciating process of the autobiographical questionnaire. Every aspect of your life is questioned - family, education, career."
Candidates are aspirants, then postulants and then they are admitted to the seminary.
Seminary study lasts three years. In May 2004, Hutton received a Masters of Divinity, with honors, from the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. She received the Urban T. Holmes Preaching Excellence Award and the William Griffin Fellowship for Biblical study in the Holy Land.
She was ordained to the transitional diaconate in the Episcopal Church, from the Diocese of Virginia June 26 in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., before coming to Warsaw as the assistant to the rector.
"I work for the rector (Father Brian Grantz), to make him look good," she said laughing. "I'm not in charge. I don't know how Brian's done it all alone for so long."
She was ordained to the priesthood by the Right Rev. Edward S. Little, the bishop of northern Indiana, Jan. 25 in St. Anne's.
Hutton said she always liked two-priest parishes, with a man and a woman.
"It's nice to give people a choice. Men and women, in general, have a different type of spirituality, like they have a different approach to problem-solving. We're here to help someone find their voice, their own skill in the ministry," she said.
She said recent polls show 40 percent of U.S. citizens are unchurched.
"There's so much more to life than dashing to and from work, taking the kids to soccer practice," she said.
"I'm happy wherever someone finds Christ, I'm grateful. Being a Christian is not a job. It's an identity. It's not what you do. It's what you are." [[In-content Ad]]
The seventh woman to earn Naval Aviator wings in March 1976 also was the first woman aviator to assume command of an Atlantic Fleet carrier aviation squadron. She is the first woman naval aviator to command a Naval Air Station - NAS Key West.
Prior to her retirement in October 2001, Capt. Linda Hutton served in the Pentagon on the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations.
During her 27-year naval career, she accumulated nearly 400 day and night carrier landings and more than 4,500 flight hours. She holds a bachelor's degree from Florida State University and a master's degree in government and national security studies from Georgetown University (1982), and has been awarded two Legions of Merit, three Meritorious Service Medals, a Joint Service Commendation Medal and a Meritorious Outstanding Service Volunteer Medal.
Today she is the first woman priest to be ordained in the Episcopal Church of Northern Indiana and the first woman priest for St. Anne's Episcopal Church on Market Street in Warsaw.
Hutton, 53, visited several parishes before settling on Warsaw.
"Two things attracted me," she said from her office in St. Anne's. "First, the most delightful surprise is the southern approach to hospitality. Easterners tend to come across brisk and cool, but not here. Second, there is a family environment, so many young people who went off to college and came back to work here. They have roots here.
"People build the opportunities, innovative thinkers create jobs. There is a wonderful influx of talent and youthful vigor and they have a desire to see the town grow. It's almost tangible and quite striking."
In residence since July, the Florida State Seminoles fan has found the lack of televised ACC and SEC football games the only drawback to living in the Midwest.
Drawn to the Episcopal liturgical style of worship while attending Florida State University, she said the decision to enter the priesthood was scary.
"I know it's strange for a Naval officer and a carrier pilot to say something is frightening. When I was a teenager, I had a friend whose 5-year-old cousin was hurt in an accident. He was in grave condition, it was doubtful that he would survive. The family was gathered at the hospital and the priest came in to visit. The family heard him say 'If you pray hard enough, he will survive.'
"There wasn't a family that prayed harder. The boy died. The family walked away from the church.
"My biggest fear is that some incautious remark of mine would be interpreted wrongly and someone would walk away from Christ."
The path to the priesthood is not a light undertaking.
And just because an individual hears a personal call to the priesthood doesn't mean the church hears the same tune.
"It's a rather laborious process. There is communication with a priest, a recommendation by a diocese," she said.
In Hutton's case, she was recommended by the Diocese of Virginia, the oldest church in the country, established in 1607. Then there is what Hutton calls the "extraordinary, excruciating process of the autobiographical questionnaire. Every aspect of your life is questioned - family, education, career."
Candidates are aspirants, then postulants and then they are admitted to the seminary.
Seminary study lasts three years. In May 2004, Hutton received a Masters of Divinity, with honors, from the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. She received the Urban T. Holmes Preaching Excellence Award and the William Griffin Fellowship for Biblical study in the Holy Land.
She was ordained to the transitional diaconate in the Episcopal Church, from the Diocese of Virginia June 26 in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., before coming to Warsaw as the assistant to the rector.
"I work for the rector (Father Brian Grantz), to make him look good," she said laughing. "I'm not in charge. I don't know how Brian's done it all alone for so long."
She was ordained to the priesthood by the Right Rev. Edward S. Little, the bishop of northern Indiana, Jan. 25 in St. Anne's.
Hutton said she always liked two-priest parishes, with a man and a woman.
"It's nice to give people a choice. Men and women, in general, have a different type of spirituality, like they have a different approach to problem-solving. We're here to help someone find their voice, their own skill in the ministry," she said.
She said recent polls show 40 percent of U.S. citizens are unchurched.
"There's so much more to life than dashing to and from work, taking the kids to soccer practice," she said.
"I'm happy wherever someone finds Christ, I'm grateful. Being a Christian is not a job. It's an identity. It's not what you do. It's what you are." [[In-content Ad]]