With deep joy, discipleship and leadership, three new priests — Jackson Davey, Bart Natoli, and Ted Renaud— became ordained Feb. 7 in the Diocese of Virginia.
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“Fill him with grace and power and make him a priest in your church,” the Rt. Rev’d Gayle Elizabeth Harris, Assistant Bishop of Virginia, prayed over each at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Richmond.
“May he exalt you, O Lord, in the midst of your people, offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to you, boldly proclaim the gospel of salvation and rightly administer the sacraments of the new covenant. Make him a faithful pastor, patient teacher and wise counselor, grant that all in all things he may serve without reproach, so that your people may be strengthened and your name glorified in all the world.”
The Rev. Davey is Interim Director of Youth Formation at Emmanuel Church at Brook Hill in Richmond. The Rev. Dr. Natoli is Vicar of Varina Church in Henrico. The Rev. Renaud is Assistant Rector at Pohick Episcopal Church in Lorton
The Ordination Sermon
The Rev. Canon Ricardo Sheppard reminded the new priests that they must continue their journey as disciples.
“You will carry grief to gravesites,” he said in the sermon. “You will carry anxiety in hospital rooms. You will carry tension in vestry meetings. You will carry questions you cannot fully answer. And let me tell you, if Moses found the burden heavy, you will too, but discipleship keeps you grounded, because disciples do not carry the burden alone.”
Sheppard referenced the Old Testament reading from Numbers in which God tells a weary Moses to call others to ministry and promises to put his spirit on them, too. Spiritual leaders must share responsibility.
“Priesthood only makes sense when it flows from discipleship,” said Sheppard, Canon for Discipleship in the Diocese of Virginia. “Please notice what God does not do. God does not create a new spiritual elite. God does not elevate them above the people. God shares the spirit among those who have already part of the community.”
It’s up to priests to keep pursuing discipleship, too.
“If you stop praying, priesthood will become performance,” Sheppard said to the tree new priests. “If you stop listening, priesthood will become management. And if you stop repenting, priesthood will become self-protection. But if you remain disciples, learners, followers, then priesthood will remain alive. Remember the spirit is shared, not so that you may stand above others, but so that you may stand among them and bear the weight together.”
Sheppard also urged the three new priests’ congregants to support them in prayer and self-care.
“Do not expect perfection. There is one who is perfect, and it is not the priest,” he said. “Pray for their holiness, because when your priest remains a disciple, the whole church grows together. We are a family of God, and as a family, we grow together.”
Assistant Bishop Harris reinforced the message of community by recognizing the new priests’ family members, sponsoring clergy and other supporters.
She asked them to stand and then led the congregation to look to the streaming video camera and say “congratulations and God bless you” to the mother of Renaud, who was in the online audience.
“She’s a part of this moment,” Harris said.
Meet the Three New Priests
The new priests, who were ordained together as transitional deacons in 2025, were asked to summarize the story of their calling for the Diocese of Virginia readers. They were also asked about balancing clergy work, the significance of ordination, their hope for the future, and any further details they wanted to share. Here are their replies.
The Rev. Jackson Davey: “Beauty and grace can speak to hungers and hurts”
The Rev. Davey is Interim Director of Youth Formation at Emmanuel Church at Brook Hill in Richmond. He graduated from the University of Montana in 2018 and Virginia Theological Seminary in 2025.
I tried everything to shrug off what I thought might be a call to ministry. I went to law school, worked in education, I even tried selling kitchen appliances. God still found a way of showing up, reminding me I could do the things I always doubted I was capable of.
I came up through the Young Priest Initiative with the Diocese of Virginia. It was there I receive a “hands-on” discernment experience actually experiencing the “work” of ministry that finally gave me the assurance that I could follow the call where it would lead.
This ordination I hope reminds others and hopefully tells others they can have a place in the church too. LGBTQ folks like myself often find themselves struggling to imagine Christian spaces where they can fully love Jesus and love themselves. I am honored to be a part of a history of the Church doing the work and affirming God’s call in surprising places.
I hope to go forward into ministry where the beauty and grace in our tradition can speak to hungers and hurts in our world today. I want to join in helping form disciples who are fully living as God created them to live.
There are many voices throughout the church that have been a part of where I am today. I’d like to thank both the teams with the Young Priests Initiative and the Pathways to Ministry program at Virginia Theological Seminary who help folks bring their love for the Gospel into ministry.
Above everything I am really thankful for the support of my spouse Emily who I love ever so much and continues to be my best friend on this wild ride.
The Rev. Dr. Bart Natoli: “This ordination is the fulcrum of my life”
The Rev. Dr. Bart A. Natoli is Vicar of Varina Church in Henrico.
My call to ordained ministry has been a constant gnawing at my soul for as long as I can remember. Love of neighbor through ministry was something that I always knew I was called to do, but it took years for me to come to grips with it. You see, my mother was an Episcopalian priest, and I grew up in seminaries and churches. So, it was always something I saw and did, but ministry was something that I always associated with my mother.
However, when my mother passed away in 2022, it was like something gave me permission to live more fully into my calling. So, on a warm summer day in July 2022, I was sitting on a bench in my front yard — a bench that was my mother’s. All of a sudden, I felt an absolute yearning, an urgency to get up and answer a call – it was a true Augustine “Take up and Read” moment.
And in that moment, I grabbed my computer and applied to seminary in one fell swoop. It was an immediate and overwhelming spiritual igniting of a call that had been slowly burning within me for some 25 years prior.
I am balancing my clergy work as the Priest-in-Charge at Varina Episcopal Church with my academic work as Professor and Chair of the Classics Department at Randolph-Macon College. I am blessed that both the Varina and RMC communities have been so flexible and enthusiastic about my bi-vocational call.
This ordination is the fulcrum of my life. It is simultaneously the culmination of a series of spiritual calls from God to serve God and love neighbor through clerical ministry and the starting point for a spiritual journey in which I can live more fully into my faith and accompany others on their own paths.
In January, I accepted a call to become Priest-in-Charge at Varina Episcopal Church. So, my hopes as a priest are to live and love faithfully with this tremendous Varina community and to help that community live out its own call to serve God and love neighbor.
The journey to ordained ministry is never traversed alone. The road is filled with family members, friends, and colleagues who walk alongside you for different lengths of time, yet every one of them is integral to the journey.
For me, I would highlight four who were exceptionally influential: The Rev. Rock Higgins has been my mentor priest ever since I first met him on Discernment weekend. He is the epitome of a faithful servant of God, and I cannot think of a better person to model one’s ministry after.
Likewise, The Rev. Emily Krudys provided me with an opportunity to learn with her during my diaconal formation. Those weeks were priceless, as they gave me a real taste for parish ministry and its intricacies. I use her wisdom on a daily basis.
The Rev. Dr. Canon Lauren Stanley has been a stalwart in my life for 30 years both as my godmother, my spiritual sounding board, and as my clerical conscience. She was my first call at every step of the formation process and has helped me stay rooted in God throughout.
Finally, my wife Morgan has been my backbone throughout. Her tireless efforts to hold down the fort through seminary and the formation process has given me the space and opportunity to live into my call more fully. Her love and support have been integral to everything I have done so far on my journey.
The Rev. Ted Renaud: “Transformation through suffering, gratitude, and grace”
The Rev. Ted Renaud is Assistant Rector at Pohick Episcopal Church in Lorton.
Ted’s life has always been rooted in service. From an early age, he became a champion for the differently abled—a passion that led him to found and operate the nonprofit Help Friends in Need, dedicated to building a more inclusive and compassionate community.
He graduated from Georgetown University with a double major in French and Italian, spending a year studying in Rennes, France, and another year in Siena, Italy experiences that broadened his horizons and deepened his appreciation for language, culture, and the wider world. He later earned his law degree from American University’s Washington College of Law, attending classes in the evening while working full time—a testament to his perseverance and discipline.
In hindsight, Ted sees the steady guidance of the Holy Spirit throughout his professional journey. His path included a one-year appointment at the U.S. Supreme Court, work as a teacher, and several years serving as an EMT. What may have seemed like varied vocations became providential preparation. The lifesaving skills he developed as an EMT were called upon when he resuscitated his infant daughter. Her ongoing medical needs ultimately shaped his decision to step away from his career and devote himself fully to caring for her and her sister—an act of love that strengthened both his faith and his sense of calling.
Following the births of his children, Ted’s involvement in church and community life deepened. Through the Community of Hope at St. Aidan’s, he discerned a call to the priesthood. There, he embraced and cultivated his pastoral gifts, discovering a vocation grounded in presence, compassion, and accompaniment.
In profound thanksgiving for the Bread of Life and for God’s sustaining grace through advanced colon cancer, Ted began the discernment that would lead him to Virginia Theological Seminary. When a second cancer diagnosis came just one week before seminary began, his faith was tested once more. Yet surrounded by steadfast community support, he leaned deeply into that faith.
With courage and resilience, he completed his Master of Divinity on time—even while undergoing cancer treatment, navigating sudden upheaval in his family life and the ensuing financial hardship, caring devotedly for his daughters, and persevering through a global pandemic.
Ted’s spiritual journey began as a youth in the Salvation Army and blossomed in the Episcopal Church, where his faith is nourished by the wisdom of Scripture, the richness of Tradition, and the clarity of Reason. A pinnacle of this journey came when he was ordained to the Sacred Order of Priests—a moment of profound gratitude and joy that affirmed his calling to serve God and God’s people.
Alongside his heart for pastoral care, he feels especially alive teaching inquirers about the Sacraments and walking with others as they grow in faith. Drawing from his own journey of transformation through suffering, gratitude, and grace, he seeks to bring others closer to Christ.
Each day, he gives thanks for the precious gift of life—cherishing every moment with his loving wife, Valerie, their five children, and the sacred privilege of serving God and God’s people at Pohick Episcopal Church.
