New clergy in diocese, including first woman priest on staff

The Rev. Melanie R. Barbarito has joined the staff of All Saints Episcopal Church-Fort Worth as parochial associate for evangelism and engagement, making her the first woman priest to be hired on the staff of a parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. Other new clergy are the Rev. Edwin W. Barnett, who is All Saints' new parochial associate for outreach and mission, and the Rev. Michael Caldwell, who is acting director for youth at Trinity Episcopal Church, Fort Worth. Other new faces include The Rev. Calvin Girvin, serving as interim at St. Luke's-Stephenville, and The Rev. Linda Sutherland who serves as deacon at St. Mary's-Hamilton.

Barbarito was ordained in 1996 and has been a priest for 13 years, most recently as vicar of St. Francis' Episcopal Church in Eureka, Mo. (southwest of St. Louis), from September 2001 until this past February. She attended Bexley Hall/Colgate Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, N.Y., where she grew up. Her first parish after graduating was the Church of the Redeemer in suburban Cincinnati, where for five years she preached, taught, and administered programs for pastoral care and new-member outreach as part of a three-person clergy team.

Her own faith story began in the Roman Catholic Church. She has a daughter and a son – both grown – and three grandchildren. She began exploring her call to the priesthood in 1985, when, at a conference for college development officers she shared with a Methodist minister an account of what she now recognizes were the early stirrings of a vocation for ordained ministry. When he said, "You ought to go to seminary," her initial reaction was to scoff at the suggestion. But inwardly, she experienced a tremendous sense of relief.

"It was as though I had waited my whole life to hear someone say those words," she later told a reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer. Within two years, she had found a new spiritual home in the Episcopal Church and had begun taking seminary classes.

The Rev. Edwin Barnett is a native of Tyler. As a college undergraduate majoring in physics at Lamar University in Beaumont, he served as a chaplain's assistant for Episcopal Campus Ministries, and was active in parish-formation development and planning.

After college, Barnett earned a graduate degree in applied physics at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Shortly before enrolling in seminary in 1994, he also received a master's degree in environmental engineering from SMU. Barnett was working as an engineer at Lockheed Martin when he finally responded to a call to pursue ordination after 20 years of discernment. After graduating from Nashotah House in 1997, he was at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Arlington where he introduced a new youth-formation program and directed planning and fund-raising for the construction of new facilities.

Barnett comes to All Saints' after four years as rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Doylestown, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia. Founded in 1848, St. Paul's is well known for its music program and its pre-school. Prior to St. Paul's, he was the assistant rector at another historic parish – St. Paul's, K Street, a short walk from the White House in downtown Washington, D.C.

He and Leigh Ann are the parents of two children – Rosalyn, 14, and James, 11

The Rev. Michael Caldwell was hired as curate by Trinity on July 1 and ordained to the priesthood at Trinity on August 8 by the Rt. Rev. Wallis Ohl, retired bishop of Northwest Texas. Caldwell grew up in Abilene, which is part of that diocese. More than 230 people attended the ordination, at which Caldwell was presented with a Bible, a stole, an alb, and a history of Trinity Parish. Caldwell met his wife Dawn in 1998, and they married in 2002. They moved to Tennessee in 2006, where he attended classes at the School of Theology and worked with the seminary children, and Dawn headed the seminary wives' group. Both were active in civic affairs before their days in seminary. Caldwell graduated with a Master of Divinity from Sewanee. He was ordained to the deaconate on December 20, 2008. He also holds a degree in business administration from Trinity University, San Antonio. Before attending Sewanee, he worked for Brooks Air Force Base doing civilian contract work, then earned a M.B.A. in International Business at Schiller International University, in Heidelberg, Germany. Then Caldwell set up a mediation firm in Austin. A year later, his father grew too ill to run the family business, Caldwell Music, so Caldwell moved home to help with the business and help his mother and sister care for his father, who died in 1997.

Caldwell speaks several languages, including Spanish, and knows American Sign Language for the hearing impaired. He is in charge of the youth ministry at Trinity.

The Rev. Calvin Girvin, canonically resident in the Diocese of Dallas, has begun work as Interim at St. Luke's, Stephenville. He was formerly Vicar of St. Mary's, Texarkana, a combined Episcopal and Lutheran congregation.

The Rev. Linda Sutherland, a deacon resident in the Diocese of Hawaii, has moved to rural Texas with her husband to run the family ranch and has begun work at St. Mary's, Hamilton. She is assisting the Rev. Stan Sullivan, priest in charge at St. Mary's.