Hallelujah! The hunt for a new pastor to lead St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is over after a more than two-year search.

Reverend Ashley Gurling has been giving sermons at the church every Sunday since starting in June, and worshipers have noticed the waning practice is seeing a restored energy many are attributing to her services.

Linda Dugins and Dyan Pignatelli began co-chairing the search committee for a new rector, which is a priest in charge of a self-supporting congregation, when Rev. Charles Robinson retired in April of 2021 after 17 years with St. Luke’s. 

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It took them a long time to find Gurling, who graduated from seminary school in May. Where Gurling saw herself as someone with little experience, Dugins and Pignatelli saw a strong, gentle woman who faced life’s challenges with great faith.

Gurling was born in Ogden and grew up in the small town of Uintah, the type of place where everyone knows each other. She was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, got married in the temple and remained committed to the Church after graduating and attending Westminster College (where she studied sociology and philosophy). 

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But there was a small shift in 2010 when Gurling became a mother.

Her daughter, now 13, was born with multiple disabilities. She has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair.

“People started saying things to me — and they meant well — like, ‘In the afterlife when she’s resurrected, she’ll be perfect.’ and I was thinking, ‘She’s perfect to me now. I love her now.’ I don’t want her growing up thinking I am holding out for her to be something different than what she is,” Gurling said. “And I don’t want to get to some heaven and have this person come up to me and I don’t even recognize they’re my daughter. I would miss the person that I know.”

There were also messages in and around the Church about the role of women and their responsibility to become wives and mothers. Gurling wondered whether that would happen for her daughter, which spurred even more theological questions.

Gradually, Gurling started to move away from the Church she felt she had outgrown. She never had anger toward the bishops. Instead, the religion just didn’t resonate anymore.

When most of Gurling’s friends left the Church, they were antagonistic about religion. But as someone who has always felt deeply connected to God, she needed to find an alternative.

“I felt like I knew how to speak a spiritual language that no longer works in my life, and I need to learn another,” Gurling said. 

She started to “tour around” Christian denominations when she discovered the Episcopal Church, which is part of the Protestant religion. Gurling was drawn in because she felt safe asking questions and comfortable knowing there was a gray area. She felt power in admitting you don’t know something and the support that can come from the church community with that. 

Gurling never again wanted to experience a religion where there were specific answers to every query, but an unanswered question could completely shake that faith. 

The Episcopal Church doesn’t emphasize orthodoxy, or correct belief, because that relationship is between the individual and god. Instead, members are taught about the importance of worshiping together the same way, as a community, regardless of where someone’s belief falls on the spectrum.

Gurling said how an individual lives their life and practices their belief is of interest to the entire parish because it’s a community tasked with caring for the broader populace. Her idea about heaven also started to shift from a place where people strive to become celestial to a place where what divides people doesn’t matter. 

In 2015, the same year her son was born, Gurling switched to Episcopalianism. Over the next few years, the priest of the congregation saw potential in Gurling and started to mentor her as well as give her more leadership opportunities.

“It would have never occurred to me because I didn’t grow up seeing women in these positions,” Gurling said. “I didn’t see that in myself, but she saw that in me and she was the first woman I had ever seen in a priest role.”

The experience led Gurling to enroll in seminary school around 2019. She received her master of divinity, which includes studies in history, theology and pastoral counseling as well as skills to work with people who are grieving or dying, writing sermons and managing church finances.

Typically, after graduating from seminary school, Gurling said an individual becomes a curate, who is ordained and learning under the direction of a priest. Then, after some time, the individual serves as an assistant priest before eventually becoming a rector or vicar.

But there are few Episcopalians and not very many clergy in Utah, which helped expedite the process for Gurling. She was ordained as a transitional deacon and will become a priest in the fall. Not much will change when that happens, except Gurling will be able to say a tiny part of the Eucharistic Prayer that she can’t say now.

“It was very unusual for me to get a position like this when I’m not even a priest, let alone a priest with no experience, but they interviewed me and they were open to it,” she explained. 

Gurling said she felt like St. Luke’s took a chance on her, but Dugins affirmed they were impressed with her ability to lead from the heart.

An interim pastor helped guide the church during a transitional period after Robinson’s retirement, which is when the search committee began asking the congregation what they wanted in a new leader. Dugins and Pignatelli then started reaching out to Episcopalians throughout the state and across the country. 

It wasn’t fruitful, Dugins admitted, but it helped get the word out. There has been a national clergy shortage as older members are leaving without new people to replace them. The cost of living in the Park City area also created a stumbling block for the search committee. 

They had completed several rounds of Zoom interviews when they finally found Gurling. The recent graduate displayed a mix of strength and courage while also balancing the ability to be soft and gentle. The committee also witnessed Gurling as an engaged mother and reviewed her educational and leadership experiences.

“Her inexperience didn’t seem to play a big role in the end because she has so much life experience, that, coupled with her recent education at seminary, we knew she was really going to be a good fit for us,” Dugins said. 

Gurling has also brought a lot of energy, which St. Luke’s hopes will expand into the community at large. Dugins, who has been an active member of the church since moving to Park City 30 years ago, has noticed people are returning for services. There are even some new visitors.

And as the role of churches continues to change, St. Luke’s will continue looking forward as it looks for new ways to become involved in the community over the next year. 

Dugins anticipated the church would take a more active role in helping support young people, parents and other underserved populations.

Gurling agreed. She wants St. Luke’s to be a place that meets the needs of the people, regardless of how often they come into the building. While Sunday is an important day to many people of faith, she said it doesn’t have to be where all of the energy is focused. Worshipers can also direct it outward, toward building connections and serving others.

“We are realizing that people coming to church every Sunday and sitting in the pews and spending an hour or two of their morning is a tradition that is kind of waning,” Dugins said. “Church attendance is down across the nation but I believe that people are still wanting and looking for that kind of security and message.”

St. Luke’s offers services at 7:45 a.m. at the Old Town Chapel on 525 Park Ave. and 10:30 a.m. at the church on 4595 N. Silver Springs Drive every Sunday. For more information about St. Luke’s or its ministries, visit stlukesparkcity.com