A packed church celebrated the new ministry of the Rev. Shariya Molegoda which was held on January 9, 2008 at 7:00 p.m., at Grace Episcopal Church, Jefferson City. Bishop Wayne Smith presided at the beautiful celebration, the Rev. Marshall Crossnoe served as Deacon and Bishop’s Chaplain and Lisa Fox served as sub-deacon.

Shariya is a life-long Anglican who was born and raised in Sri Lanka. Her early Christian formation occurred in an Anglo-Catholic parish and in an Anglican school in which daily worship was an integral component. This early formation shaped the way she approaches parish ministry. She believes worship informs and shapes the rest of a community’s common life and that in worship we are most formed and fed – and equipped for the task of sharing the joy and hope that is within us with the world.

Prior to becoming a priest, Shariya was an ecologist with a Masters of Science from the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka, and a doctoral candidate in the school of forest resources at the University of Georgia. Instead of doing a dissertation, she entered Seminary at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and received her Masters of Divinity in 1993.

That year she entered the Society of St. Margaret in Roxbury, Massachusetts, as a novice and later became a Sister in Annual Profession as she continued her preparation for ordination. Since her ordination to the priesthood in 1997, she has served as assistant to the rector, associate rector, priest-in-charge and interim rector in four churches in Massachusetts.

• Grace-Jeff City Grace Episcopal Church, 217 Adams St., Jefferson City, MO 65101, ph 573-635-4405, call2grace.org