Jacqueline Means

Jacqueline Means was born in 1936 in Illinois. Means initially pursued a career in nursing while raising her four children; however, she found herself called to ministry. After attending two seminaries in Indianapolis, Indiana, neither of which were Episcopal, she was ordained a deacon in The Episcopal Church on April 6, 1974. She then began her service at All Saints Episcopal Church in Indianapolis. There, on January 1, 1977, she was ordained to the priesthood, thus becoming the first regularly ordained woman priest in The Episcopal Church.

Means pursued her ministry among the hungry, the outcast, and the suffering. Even before her ordination as a priest, she offered spiritual guidance and support at Indiana Women’s Prison, where she would go on to spend twelve years as a chaplain. In 1978, she founded Craine House, which began as a halfway house for women recently released from prison and grew into an alternative sentencing program that allowed women and their pre-school aged children to remain together in a supportive environment while the women served their sentences. As the Rector of St. Mark’s Church in Plainfield, Indiana, she led the church in establishing a homeless shelter and food pantry. While serving as Director for Prison Ministries for The Episcopal Church, a position she held from 1998 to 2006, she also ministered to first responders in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and to Louisianans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Additionally, Means chaired the Advisory Board for the Marion County Indiana Juvenile Detention Center, worked as Director of Prison Ministries for the Diocese of Indiana, and served in multiple parishes throughout the diocese. She received a honorary Doctor of Divinity from Church Divinity School of the Pacific in 2001. As of 2024, Means is an affiliated priest at St. Timothy’s Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.