by Claudia Windal

Created on: August 07, 2008

I was the teenager who believed that I would never be admitted to college. How I came to that determination is a mystery since I was an honor student and was admitted to the National Honor Society my senior year.

I entered a Roman Catholic religious community right out of high school and found myself attending college. There were no entrance exams, simply the expectation that we begin to focus on our professional futures as members of the community. I was my worst enemy by not believing in myself. Although my grades were adequate, I didn't see a college degree in my future.

Upon completion of nursing school, I realized that I needed only to declare a major and complete those required classes in order to earn my BA degree. I attended St. Ambrose College (now a university) and began to believe in myself. I was encouraged by Sr. Annette Walters, CSJ, the head of the psychology department and with whom I lived during my one year at St. Ambrose. Despite my fear of statistics, Jim Colliver encouraged me and once again, I achieved high scores and understanding. In 1975, I graduated with my BA.

About the time of my graduation, I learned that the Episcopal Church was seriously considering the ordination of women to the priesthood. Throughout my youth, I believed that I had been called to be a priest and now, if the Episcopal tradition in word and sacrament, appeared right for me, I might become a priest.

Seminary academically challenged and strengthened me. Although I easily made friends, I was hurt by those students who were opposed to the ordination of women and let the few of us women students know that. Ordination to the priesthood came in 1982 and I have just celebrated my 25th anniversary as a priest.

In 2000, upon the direction of an Ojibwe elder, I began The Indian Burial Assistance Project which offered no cost transportation of the deceased to their reservations for burial. Minneapolis has had a similar project for years, but there are distance restrictions which we abandoned in order to travel to the Dakotas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa and other states.

During the early years of the project's work, I began to learn how poorly treated economically challenged people tend to be treated at funeral homes. Most of them can't come close to paying the required basic service charge, let alone all of the additional expenses. If local counties pay for funerals/burials, the payments barely touch the prices of most funeral homes meaning that families have relatively

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