The 2023 Awardees of the Lucile Murray Durkin Scholarship
The Women’s Ordination Conference and the Durkin-Dierks Family are happy to announce the awardees of the 2023 Lucile Murray Durkin Scholarship:
Christy Chady
Julia Murphy
Kelly Wurth
Please join us in celebrating the courage and resilience of Christy, Julia, and Kelly, who walk a prophetic path toward equality. We challenge our Church to open its doors to truly listen to their voices and learn from their experiences. God is calling them to lead!
Meet Our 2023 Awardees
Christy Chady
Julia Murphy
Kelly Wurth
Christy Chady
I first felt a sense of call to the priesthood when I was seven years old. However, when I shared this at my Roman Catholic school, I felt ashamed when I was told that I could not be a priest because I was a girl. After that, I spent decades trying to figure out a career path although the sense of a call to the priesthood remained present.
I earned a BA and MA in Anthropology, focusing on reconstructing prehistoric sacred landscapes in the Rocky Mountains using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) computer mapping and analysis. After my kids were born, I stayed home to raise them, then began working for a library district, where I am currently a Cataloging Associate. I remained involved in many church ministries in Roman Catholic churches until I came out as a gay woman and started looking for a spiritual home where I could grow and be nourished after feeling judged and stifled due to my gender and sexuality. I also wanted a church community where my children would not be shamed or guilted into certain
beliefs or behaviors.
I found an Ecumenical Catholic Community (ECC) which has the richness of the Catholic tradition along with a commitment to inclusivity, building and strengthening community, and ordaining women and gay clergy, all of which foster my spiritual growth. I was welcomed by the community immediately and felt God telling me,
“welcome home.” I no longer had to run from my curiosity about being a priest or feel ashamed of it, and I began a discernment process of ordination to the priesthood with those on my discernment team.
I have seen many parallels between my coming out
process and discernment process, most especially in how they relate to a sense of identity that had been hidden out of fear and shame that instead needed to be lived into and then shared with others. I am currently on the presbyterate track at the Bishop
Kemper School for Ministry (an Episcopal school based in Topeka, KS), with an anticipated graduation date of May 2025.
I have felt reaffirmed of my call throughout this process and have felt that the formation of my discernment and educational experiences is me living more fully into my identity. I have a passion to minister to those in the LGBTQ+ community, especially those who have a tenuous relationship with God due to their identity.
Julia Murphy
Julia Murphy is a third-year Master of Divinity Student at Boston College School of Theology & Ministry. Her call to ministry has been fostered and enriched by many different people and places in her life, and she is especially grateful to have always been supported and nourished by so many faith-filled women over the years.
Julia was raised by parents who instilled in her a deep commitment to a Catholic faith that does justice and always encouraged her to ask difficult questions about faith and the Church, rather than accepting the status quo and going through the motions of religious practice without deep reflection. As the daughter of a female lay minister, Julia saw women in ministry from a young age and witnessed the unique gifts they bring to the Church.
During her undergraduate studies at Saint Louis University (B.A. in English and Spanish), Julia became heavily involved in the Micah Program, a faith-based intentional community committed to service in the St. Louis area and academic study of justice issues. She also participated in a study abroad program called Casa de la Mateada in Córdoba, Argentina based on pillars of community, academics, spirituality, and accompaniment, which sparked in her a love of Latin America and transformed her ideas of what solidarity with the marginalized really can look like.
As she looks back on her time in college, the female ministers who accompanied her (in St. Louis and in Argentina) impacted her faith journey in monumental ways. She was able to see herself in them; they served as examples of what it means for Catholic women to exist in the in-between: filled with anger and sadness that the institutional church is steeped in patriarchy, but refusing to let this hierarchy define their communion with the Church as the People of God.
These experiences led to Julia’s discernment to say “yes” to a year of service outside Guayaquil, Ecuador. She lived in community, worked in community organizing at a Jesuit social services agency, and built relationships with her neighbors through pastoral visits. The deep faith of the Ecuadorian people she met, especially the women, inspire, nourish, and sustain Julia’s continued faith in the Resurrection in the midst of poverty, patriarchy, and suffering. Accompanying and being accompanied by her neighbors led her to realize her desire to work in ministry. She carries these people in her heart as she continues on her journey.
After her time in Ecuador, Julia worked in college campus ministry for a year before beginning her theological studies in Boston. She hopes to continue to work in the realm of service and justice ministry in the future.
Kelly Wurth
Kelly L. Wurth is grateful to receive a Lucile Murray Durkin Scholarship for Women Discerning Priestly Ordination. Without the support of the Women’s Ordination Conference and the Durkin-Dierks family, the pathway and process of discernment would be extremely difficult for many women, and Kelly is no exception.
Like many women, her childhood dream of serving in ministry was at first denied because of her gender. She then focused on the joyful service of raising children
and supporting her family. Even as she also devoted herself to teaching and working in emergency and primary healthcare, she felt a persistent sense that
these were not “the thing” she was born to do. Restless, she sensed God inclining her to a pastoral path of spirituality, prayer, and proclamation of God’s love and
liberation.
In 2022, she found Beloved Inclusive Catholic Community in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. This was her introduction to the womanpriest movement and the brave women pursuing priesthood “on the inside of the edge” of the Church. The movement spoke to her, and her lifelong call flared. She is currently applying to
seek ordination as a womanpriest. Her two graduate degrees are in Literature and Physician Assistant Studies, and she’s pursuing graduate theological and pastoral care coursework to strengthen her for ministry.
Kelly envisions offering her skills and love of writing, speaking, Scripture study, nonviolent communication, contemplative prayer, and pastoral accompaniment
to her local progressive Catholic community. She’s also committed to leading by representation, to inspire other women who wait in hope to take up their calls
and roles in ministry and Church leadership. She’s eager to be part of a renewed Church for all who have been marginalized. She also looks forward to supporting the community of Champaign-Urbana’s ecumenical social justice efforts.
Kelly thanks the Women’s Ordination Conference and the Durkin-Dierks family for this vision, opportunity, and resource to support her and other women in their
calls to ministry.
About the Lucile Murray Durkin Scholarship
Since 2017, the Women’s Ordination Conference has awarded nearly $35,000 to women and non-binary leaders discerning their ministry.
Meet our past scholarship recipientsWho was Lucile Murray Durkin? Support the scholarship fund