In 1977, she became one of the first women to be ordained a priest by the American Episcopal Church and was the first woman to hold the office of canon.
Upon her return to the United States, she became a religious sister and took her life vows with the Order of Saint Helena in Vails Gate, New York in 1956.
She was soon after appointed the head of a girls' school operated by the order, Margaret Hall in Versailles, Kentucky, where she remained for about a decade.
In 1974 she was appointed a deacon at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and spent the next three years on the staff of that church working as a pastoral counselor.
[3] She was the first ordained woman to preach at Westminster Abbey when she visited London in April 1978.