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28 June, IN: Worship
Ordination of deacons
Bishop Jonathan will ordain 10 ordinands as deacons in our cathedral. They’ll go on to ... read more
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28 June, IN: Worship
Ordination of priests
Bishop Jonathan will ordain 18 deacons as priests in this service in our cathedral. They ... read more
Bishop’s daughter is among those being ordained
HER father would be very proud. As a former Bishop of Portsmouth, Kenneth Stevenson would be thrilled that his daughter is joining our diocese’s clergy ranks.
Kitty Price is one of 10 candidates being ordained deacon by Bishop Jonathan in our cathedral this summer. After 11 years of being a Reader, she now feels called to wear a clerical collar and be called ‘the Reverend.’
She’s actually the second of Bishop Kenneth’s four children to be ordained. Her brother James is a vicar in Bristol. Her sister Elisabeth is head of a C of E Girls’ Academy in London, and sister Alexandra is married to the rector of St John’s, Merrow, in Guildford diocese – so they all have gravitated to roles in the Church of England. Her grandfather and great-grandfather were also both clergy – the latter was Bishop of Aarhus in the Danish Lutheran Church.
Kitty first felt called to ordination back in 1993 when studying theology at university. Around 10 years later, she was recommended for ordination and completed her Masters as part of the training, but didn’t take things forward. She finally became a Reader, serving in our cathedral, in 2014.
Only now is she ready to take the step into ordained ministry. She’s set to become curate at St Simon’s Church in Southsea, after the ordination services on June 28. As well as the 10 deacons being ordained, there will also be 18 people ordained as priest that day.
“Having a dad as a bishop was actually no pressure,” she said. “There was certainly no pressure from inside the family to be ordained. In fact, my dad did try to talk me out of studying theology!
Going for ordination now feels like the right time, and I think I’ll be better for having done 18 years of teaching. I’ve loved my time as a Reader, but it will be good to be able to exercise a clerical ministry, to lead weddings and to be involved with the sacraments. I will miss being part of the cathedral, but I’m really looking forward to working with the Rev Jackie Twine and her team at St Simon’s.”
Kitty grew up with a father who was a university lecturer, parish priest, and then Bishop of Portsmouth from 1995-2009. She first felt called to ordination at Leeds University, when she had a sense that she should be standing next to the celebrant behind the altar. “It came as quite a shock,” she said. “There was no way I was wanting to be ordained, but there it was.”
After the family moved to Portsmouth, she married David Price – sub-organist and Master of Choristers at our cathedral – in 1998. She felt called to help his work, and has supported many gap-year choral scholars and choristers over the years. Kitty started teaching RE at a school in Surrey in 2006 and then transferred to Portsmouth High School, where she has been ever since.
“I never wanted to be teaching RE, or in an independent school, or in an all-girls school, but that’s what I’ve ended up doing for many years – and love it!” she said. “This shows how you can never predict where life, work and ministry take you. The call to ordained ministry still hadn’t gone away, even though it hadn’t worked out twice. I didn’t want to give up teaching or leave the cathedral at that point, so I became a Lay Reader.”
Kitty has led worship and preached in our cathedral ever since. She was also asked to do some teaching on the Portsmouth Pathway, our in-house training course for trainee Readers and ordinands. She taught some Church history and spirituality, but mostly taught ethics.
“I loved teaching on the Pathway, because it was a way of doing something fresh,” she said. “It was the greatest privilege to encourage these fledgling Readers and trainee clergy to flourish and to think about different approaches to ethical issues. I even got to quote my father, especially when it came to Church history. I could say what a large contribution he played in the creation of the Porvoo agreement that brought together Anglican and Lutheran Churches in Europe.
“But people kept saying I should be ordained. I was being asked to take weddings and baptisms but I couldn’t. In the end, I thought, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!
“My mother is delighted and I do think my father would be chuffed, although he might have asked why it has taken me 30 years to get to this point! He has, of course, helped to shape my life and faith, and it’s great to be able to carry on this family tradition.”
