At Christ Church Cathedral, we have been able to recruit great human and spiritual talent, and the Rev. Susan Mills is, without a doubt, one of those great blessings to our community. Today we join in thanksgiving and celebration for her 80th birthday!

Do you know the story of Rev. Susan? Here’s a short biography, so you can learn more about the Rev. Susan Mills.

Susan Mills is one of four children from a musical family, and began playing piano when she was three years old. Piano study began when she was eight and continues to this day.

A graduate of Indiana University School of Music (now Jacobs School of Music) with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Education with  piano, Susan Mills taught elementary vocal/general music for several years, both in Indiana and in upstate New York. After two years living in Vienna in the early 1970’s, she tested a vocation to the ordained ministry and entered The General Theological Seminary in New York. Ordained in March, 1977, Susan was in the first wave of women who were “legally” ordained in the Episcopal Church.

Because there were few opportunities for women in the parish ministry, she taught music at a church-related school in New York, then did secretarial and word processing work full-time, while working on the weekends at churches in New York. In 1983, Susan became Vicar of a small parish in Delaware; six years later, she became Rector of St. Paul’s, Jeffersonville, Indiana. After eleven years, she became Rector of St. Andrew’s Church, Dayton, Ohio.

In 2006, Susan retired from active church ministry and moved to southeastern Mexico, where she spent nine happy years. She started the Congregation of Saints Mary and Martha in her home in Coatepec, Veracruz.

Susan returned to the US in 2015, first living and working in the San Francisco Bay area, then returning to Indiana in 2016.

She became a part of the Christ Church community in early 2017, and thoroughly enjoys this vibrant community. Susan has started a singing group in her retirement community, and is an active volunteer for greyhound adoption groups.