Eleanor Lee McGee-Street

Eleanor Lee McGee-Street was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on August, 24, 1943. After graduating from Frostburg State College in 1965, McGee-Street enrolled in a graduate program at Yale Divinity School, although she was forced to pause her studies when she developed a genetic eye condition that led to blindness. After a short period learning adaptive skills at Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind in Washington D.C., she resumed her divinity studies. She graduated with her Master of Arts in Religion in 1969 and was ordained a deacon in 1974.

McGee-Street’s first ministry was at American University in Washington, D.C. where she served as chaplain beginning in 1971. She held the esteem of the university community and was often asked to perform formal church ceremonies such as baptisms and weddings even though she lacked the ecclesiastical authority of an ordained a priest. McGee-Street thought that to be an important distinction from the authority granted by formal ordination. In an interview with Darlene O’Dell, she said, “God calls you through the community and the church then...ratifies that.”

In a ratification of her call, on September 7, 1975, McGee was ordained a priest at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Church in Washington, D.C. alongside the other three women who became known as the “Washington 4,” joining the Philadelphia 11 as the first ordained women of The Episcopal Church. After her ordination, she continued to serve the community at American University until 1980. Having earned a degree in social work from American University, she began employment as a social worker. She additionally served at Trinity College as an associate chaplain, holding both positions until 1985.

McGee-Street began teaching as a full-time professor at Yale Divinity School in 1987. She held the position for ten years, retiring in 1997. During this period, 1987 to 1991, she was also the rector of the Church of St. Paul and St. James in New Haven, Connecticut. Eleanor Lee McGee-Street died on February 21, 2022.