Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 7, 1991 TAG: 9104050141
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
She passed them all and will be ordained Wednesday at Christ Episcopal Church in Roanoke at 7:30 p.m. The ceremony is open to the public.
Meanwhile, she is working part-time at Grace Episcopal Church in Radford as a deacon, making visits to the sick and shut-ins, leading Bible study, teaching adult Sunday school, working with the junior-high youths and helping lead Sunday services.
Bentley was ordained a deacon last June. "But my intention has always been to be ordained to the priesthood," she said.
It will have taken her almost 10 years to reach that goal.
The Episcopal Church has allowed women to become priests since 1979, and recently ordained its first woman bishop. "I certainly support women's full participation in the church, and I certainly support the ordination of a woman as a bishop," Bentley said. "It's no secret that women have been the backbone of the church for centuries."
Bentley, 37, a Chicago native, came to Virginia as a Hollins College student in 1971. She received a degree in biology and psychology and worked there for about three years as assistant to the dean of students.
Then she spent eight years in Christian education, including three years at a Methodist church in Raleigh, N.C., while studying at Duke University's divinity school. She worked two years as education director at First Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, and three years at Christ Episcopal in Roanoke starting in 1983.
"That's when I became a confirmed Episcopalian," she said. She was raised as a Presbyterian, but found she loved the Episcopal liturgy. One of her favorite instructors at Duke had also been Episcopalian.
While in Roanoke, she met Michael Bentley, whose field was education. They were married in 1985.
They came to the New River Valley last year. He had been named director of the Southwest Virginia Governor's School, a position from which he recently resigned.
Since her part-time job at Grace Episcopal is to end in May, it raises questions about the future. Both plan to participate fully in their own vocations, but they don't know where at this time.
"On a practical level, it makes more sense for me to be part-time because I'm entry-level," she said. "But we're not trying to be rigid about that. We're trying to be open about where we're led, and be discerning. . . . There hasn't been too much territory that's been plowed in that area, so there are no role models."
She said her husband has been supportive of her career choice, which took them both to Evanston, Ill., where she enrolled in Seabury Western Episcopal Seminary in 1987. Right before her last year there, they had their daughter, Sarah.
Bentley said she thought at the time, "Oh, well, I can read and nurse her, and babies sleep a lot." They do, but she quickly learned that sleep times seldom coincide with what would be study times. Still, she graduated in May 1989.
After the move back to Virginia, Bentley began working as a deacon at Grace. Episcopal priesthood candidates usually spend six months to a year as a deacon. Her candidacy has been sponsored by Grace.
"It's certainly not the way either of us would have planned things," she said of her and Michael's lives. He was ready to settle in Roanoke in his field six years ago "and then he met me." Then he found a job in the Midwest while she attended seminary. She accompanied him back here when the Governor's School job opened up.
"We certainly didn't expect that, in eight months, we'd be job-hunting again, but that's life sometimes," she said. "We'll just have to see what materializes . . . to be open and not anxious."
She admitted that is something it's easier to talk about than do.
by CNB