April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
NEW DIOCESAN LEADER
Campus ministry director had own spiritual journey
But as a Jesuit priest anointed her face with holy oil at an Easter vigil Mass last year, she broke into a huge smile.
"It was euphoric," she said. "It was really like being welcomed into a family."
After a spiritual journey that transformed her expectations about the Bible and the role of women in faith communities - and a physical journey across five states - Ms. Reid became the Albany Diocese's director of campus ministry last fall.
She's also co-campus minister at the University at Albany. Though she's focused on events and students there, she also began visiting other campuses throughout the 14 counties of the Diocese without being asked, said Elizabeth Simcoe, diocesan chancellor for pastoral services.
Ms. Reid intends to foster more collaboration among colleges and campus ministers. She hopes to better connect local parishes and colleges - especially colleges that don't have campus ministers -and tie UAlbany's Catholic groups to other campus groups.
"She brings the graces and the benefits of her own personality" to the job, Ms. Simcoe noted, referring to Ms. Reid's theological background, organizational skills and concern for the poor and marginalized. "She really stood above the rest because of her energy and enthusiasm about working with college populations."
Ms. Reid grew up in Kansas. She attended a non-denominational church that, she said, denigrated women and taught that the Bible was literally true. Sermons emphasized an angry God and the brutality of Christ's death for people's sins.
"I had a lot of questions about whether the God that I spoke to in prayer was the God I was being presented with," Ms. Reid remarked.
She sometimes thought about switching denominations or becoming an atheist. But when it came time to pick a college in 2003, she only applied to one: Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., a Catholic college where she studied theology and Latin in an effort to find answers to her questions.
She ended up in a work-study assignment for the campus ministry department. At the first Catholic Mass she ever attended, she served as sacristan - and a woman was the eucharistic minister.
"It was almost like a revelation," said Ms. Reid, who had dreamed of giving out communion at her own church. "I had this sense that when she said, 'The body of Christ,' it wasn't just about the host.
"It really came home to me that the body of Christ was also the person presenting the host - and it was also me, and it was also the body of believers. It wasn't just a piece of bread."
During college, Ms. Reid segued from setting up for Masses to planning retreats and liturgies, and then began initiating faith-based programs and discussions.
"Campus ministry became my home," she said.
Ms. Reid imagined she would become a theology professor, so she moved to Atlanta to attend Emory University and study advanced theology, focusing on the New Testament.
With a newfound love for the Bible, she decided she did want to convert to Catholicism - but first, her interest in social justice led her to join the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.
For a year, she visited addicted women in homeless shelters and directed interfaith retreats, which she termed "intense and powerful experiences" where "the Spirit flowed from the women. It reinforced for me the fact that everyone has a sacredness."
Ms. Reid went on to become a Catholic through a program at Loyola University in Chicago. She began applying for campus ministry positions last August.
"I had this idea that God would call me where I needed to go," she said.
In March, a year after her own baptism into the Church, Ms. Reid was the one assisting catechumens and candidates during the Rite of Election at Albany's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.[[In-content Ad]]
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