The
Rev. Janet Kelly Brown, Vermont’s first woman to be ordained an
Episcopal priest and a clinical psychologist in private practice in
Milton and Burlington for 29 years, died April 5, 2025, after a brief
illness. She was 82. A service in celebration of her life will be on
May 10 at 11 a.m. at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Burlington,
with the Right Rev. Tom Ely presiding. A reception will follow at St.
James Episcopal Church in Essex Junction.
Janet
was extraordinarily kind and an attentive listener. She found great
joy in her love of God and brought an assurance of God’s love to
her preaching and her life. “St. Patrick’s Breastplate,”
sung at her ordination ceremony, was her favorite hymn, rooted in her
deep fondness for her Irish heritage.
She
was born in Queens, N.Y., on August 1, 1942, and moved with her
parents to Barre at the age of 11 and subsequently to East Calais. A
1960 graduate of Spaulding High School, she received a degree in
British literature from Swarthmore College in 1964. In 1965 she
received a Master of Arts degree in teaching from Wesleyan College.
That September, she married John R. B. Brown.
John
and Janet settled in Montpelier and subsequently bought a house in
Woodbury. She taught English at Spaulding High School, where her
younger brother, Brian T. Kelly, was a student. John and Janet’s
first child, Michael David, was born December 1969. They moved to
Williston in 1970 and had a daughter, Deborah Jean, in September
1971. Janet began graduate level studies in the 1980s and
subsequently received a Master of Arts in counseling psychology from
Antioch University New England in Keene, N.H.
Janet
trained for the priesthood by reading for orders. Three priests
supported her studies and discernment process: the Rev. George
Anderson (St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church, Hardwick), the Rev.
David Brown (Christ Episcopal Church, Montpelier) and the Rev.
Alexander J. Smith (St. James, Essex Junction). Father Smith was
Rector at St. James, from which she was ordained.
Janet
made Vermont history on January 6, 1977, when she became the second
woman nationwide to be “regularly ordained” under the national
Episcopal Church’s ordination canons, which were amended late in
1976 to apply equally to men and women.
During
her career, Janet served Vermont parishes in many different
capacities for nearly 50 years — in Richford, Milton and Enosburg
Falls; and at Grace Episcopal Church in Sheldon, where she served as
a priest for more than 20 years. She also was an interim priest for
several churches in Vermont and a longtime supply priest. After her
retirement in 2023, she returned to St. James as a parishioner.
Janet
was integral to several Christian education programs, including
Cursillo and the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont’s Rock Point Summer
Conferences in Burlington.
Janet
is survived by her partner of 37 years, Jean Townsend; her son,
Michael Brown, of Jericho; and her daughter, Deborah Brown, and a
grandchild, Ell Stryker, of Portland, Ore. She was predeceased by
John Brown and her brother, Brian.
In
lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to local food
banks and food shelves.