by Emily McDonald
South East Correspondent

The nave was radiant with the warm glow of late afternoon sunlight streaming in through stained glass windows and the air was heavy with the smell of incense as the procession moved slowly toward the chancel steps.

In this rich atmosphere the Rev. Jocelyn Bell was presented as the new rector of Christ Church, Chattanooga.

The combination of an urban location and a ministry to the university on the church’s door step brought Bell to Christ Church.

I was ready for a new setting and new challenges, Bell said. Five years (at her previous church) was long enough to be productive.

Bell became rector of Christ Church in April after serving as vicar of Trinity Church in Kirksville, Mo., a diocesan mission established in the 1870s. It was a very, very sad little place when I got there, Bell said. There has been a lot of growth.

Bishop Charles vonRosenberg officiated and served as celebrant at the Celebration of a New Ministry for Bell on May 12. The Rev. Lydia Agnew Speller, rector of St. Mark’s Church in St. Louis, Mo., and a friend of Bell’s, was the preacher.

Part of the Bell’s responsibilities in Missouri was a campus ministry to faculty and students at Truman State University. As rector of Christ Church she will be involved in campus ministry at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and she will be trying to reach out to the UTC faculty in particular.

Bell was impressed by the fact that Christ Church has traditionally been the Anglo-Catholic parish in Chattanooga but also has a strong link with social and outreach ministries. Some churches pride themselves on being the Anglo-Catholic parish in town and don’t want to do anything else, she said.

Liturgy is a very special thing here, Bell said. This congregation wouldn’t have called a rector who would do away with the liturgy. She also senses an interest in making the church a center for music, drama and dance because of the church’s organ and the outstanding acoustics in the building.

Bell, a native of Baltimore, grew up in the Methodist Church and graduated from Mount Holyoke College. She became an Episcopalian while attending Yale Divinity School and intended to become an ordained priest. This was in the early days of women priests, however, and she didn’t receive much encouragement or have any role models. Instead, Bell said, I did Christian education. I was part of the last breed of seminary-trained directors of religious education. She served three parishes in Connecticut and then moved with her then husband to Normal, Ill., in the Diocese of Springfield.

The diocese was sort of a male bastion and there were no roles for women, Bell said, so she devoted her time to raising two children, Amy Bell Calhoun and Jim Bell, and getting involved in politics. Bell served two terms on the Normal Town Council but eventually decided to go back to school full-time.

Bell became a computer programmer and systems analyst and worked for McLean County Government in Illinois. Although she was good at the job, she wasn’t satisfied inside. After a lot of arguing with God, she accepted the call to the priesthood.

Because the Diocese of Springfield still wasn’t ordaining women, Bell was accepted as a postulant in the more hospitable Diocese of Michigan. She received a master’s degree from Seabury Western Theological Seminary and worked at several jobs, including Kelly Girl and Hallmark store saleswoman, in the year between being ordained deacon and priest. After her ordination as a priest, Bell was called to be vicar of Trinity Church in Kirksville, Mo. She was serving when called to Christ Church.

Speaking of her new ministry at Christ Church, Bell said, I sense a commitment, at least on the part of the vestry, that the parish needs to grow and that means continuing what’s important—a strong liturgical emphasis and social ministries.