Bishop Glenda Curry, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, on Thursday ordained the Rev. Katie Kirk as a priest at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham.

Kirk, a graduate of Auburn University and Yale University’s Berkley Divinity School, has been serving at St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem on a fellowship.

She’s the 2023-2024 Porter Fellow, a program for seminary graduates at Yale to advance global leadership by having recent graduates live and work in Jerusalem.

The opening hymn for the ordination service was “I Bind Unto Myself This Day.” The service was broadcast on the St. Andrew’s Facebook page.

“As we sang in the opening hymn, I truly felt Christ in all that love me — those in the church and those watching online, and those who are now with us in the great cloud of witnesses,” Kirk said.

In March 2023, she had been ordained as a deacon, sponsored by Holy Trinity Church in Auburn.

After completing the Porter Fellowship, Kirk plans to return to Alabama.