Allyson (Ally) Brundige was 16 years old when she traveled with a group to a rural village in Zimbabwe to build a medical clinic. That experience shaped the beginning of her call to ministry. On Sunday, September 14, Ally will take a big step on her vocational journey when she is ordained to the sacred order of priests by Bishop Mark Beckwith.
The service will be held at 4 p.m. in the Seymour St. John Chapel at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, CT (www.choate.edu). Your prayers and presence are requested.
Raised by loving parents in Ridgewood, NJ, Ally has an older sister who taught her to “believe in the impossible.” Following high school, she worked as a summer counselor at CityServe, a program of St. Paul’s Church, Paterson, which began her pursuit of youth development and organizing work, to “create beloved communities for children.”
After graduating cum laude with a history degree from Yale, Ally entered the nonprofit world, spending a year in Durban, South Africa learning from a group of shack dwellers. “I was privileged to be a part of the community,” she said. While in Durban, she attended the University of Kwazulu-Natal, where she received a masters in Political Science, cum laude. Ally later received her M.Div. from Yale Divinity School.
Ally is a member of St. Elizabeth's Church in Ridgewood, which sponsored her for ordination. She says she is grateful to her discernment committee at St. Elizabeth’s and the members of the Commission on Ministry for their support and guidance during the ordination process, which she described as “incredibly rich and meaningful.”
While in the ordination process, Ally worked as seminarian and lay organizer at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in New Haven, CT, where she has continued to serve as Deacon. She also served as liturgical assistant at Yale University’s church, and worked as a chaplain in Bridgeport Hospital.
Ally is currently Chaplain and Director of Spiritual Life at Choate Rosemary Hall and will continue in that capacity after ordination.
When asked for her thoughts about her upcoming ordination, Ally said she was “thrilled and awed and full of joy for this day and the ministry ahead.”
