The Rev. Melanie Barnett Wright appointed priest-in-charge at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Arlington

The Rt. Rev. C. Wallis Ohl, provisional bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, has appointed the Rev. Melanie Barnett Wright as priest in charge of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, which holds services at Theatre Arlington,305 W. Main, Arlington, TX. The appointment is effective January 1, 2010. Her first Sunday service will be January 10, which also is the date of the annual parish meeting. Eucharist will be at 9:30 AM with the parish meeting to follow.

Her first sense of call to the priesthood happened nearly 20 years ago while she was attending Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

"At the time I knew that as I set forth on that journey, I would likely never be able to serve in this Diocese. Having lived in Tennessee, Nebraska, New York and Maryland in the intervening years, it is fascinating to me that God has allowed my journey to intersect once again with the Diocese of Fort Worth at this particular time in its history," she said.

The Rev. Wright graduated in 1991 from Texas Christian University with a Bachelor of Science degree in education. She received a Master of Divinity degree from General Theological Seminary in New York City in 2006. She was ordained to the priesthood on December 15th, 2006, by the Rt. Rev. Robert Ihloff, in Highland, Maryland.

In New York City in 2003 she worked as a hospital chaplain intern at Beth-Israel South Hospital where she provided pastoral care to patients and their families, as well as staff. From August 2003 to May 2004 she was a field education intern at St. Michael's Episcopal Church. Her work included occasional preaching, participation in liturgical leadership, the design and leadership of two adult education sections and the implementation of a ministry for young adults. In the summer of 2004, she was a religious education consultant for St. Michael's.

From August 2004 to July 2005 she served in an interfaith internship at Brotherhood Synagogue, and from August 2005 to June 2006, worked as a field education intern at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, a family-sized downtown parish in New York City.

She became associate priest at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Highland, Maryland, in July 2006. She was responsible for spiritual formation programs for all ages, including the establishment of a Spiritual Formation Commission which directs adult programming. She also established a youth leadership team. She oversaw development of pastoral care programs and taught adult Bible Study and Formation classes. With the other parish clergy she shared preaching duties, presiding at worship, and pastoral care. She left St. Mark's in October 2009 when her husband took a job in the Diocese of Dallas.

She taught second grade in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, and in a Head Start Program in Abilene. She is an artist, presently focusing on pottery and clay work.

She was born in Dayton Texas and grew up in the Middle East. She is the daughter of Assembly of God Missionaries and spent time in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Bangladesh and Cyprus.

She and her husband, the Reverend Andrew Wright, rector of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, DeSoto, have three children. They live in Cedar Hill.