MATTAPOISETT — When Patricia Berry, of Mattapoisett, was 9 years old and attending Catholic Mass she wanted to be an altar server but was told she couldn’t be one because she was female.

Years later, Berry is now the first woman ordained in the United Congregational Church in Middletown, Rhode Island’s 330-year history.

Berry said she thinks she first heard the call to worship when she was 9 but added that at the time she “didn’t know that’s what was happening.”

“I just knew there was something about worship that … is amazing,” she said. “I just want to be a part of this.”

Berry didn’t attend church regularly until she was in her 30s and joined the United Church of Christ in Mattapoisett with her growing family.

“I connected with the theology and the decision making and how they teach the gospel and how social justice is a big part of who the United Church of Christ is,” she said.

She added that since joining the Mattapoisett church community “one thing led to another,” beginning when she felt the call to teach the Bible and to teach children.

“It just grew from there,” she said.

When she was a part-time Christian educator, Berry would help people feel alive and awake and have an “awakening within,” but at the same time she was having an awakening of her own, she said.

As an educator, she found herself putting in more hours than was necessary because she found it “so fulfilling,” adding that it scared her because it was “so powerful” and made her feel like there was “something bigger going on.”

Berry said that certain things would happen that she found unexplainable, such as a job opening appearing for a Christian educator director position, which she wasn’t going to apply for. But when she started receiving phone calls from various people who told her she would be great at the job, she gave in and realized that she was doing something she loved.

“I had a knack for cultivating and teaching all ages and having them discover and engage with the holy and accept them wherever they are on their journey,” she said.

It was around this time that Berry truly heard what she calls “the call” and chose to pursue it.

“You talk with veteran clergy and say, ‘I feel God’s calling me. I’m not sure what this is,’” she said. “There’s some discernment and prayer about that.”

The journey to getting ordained looks different for everyone, but Berry said it always includes education, community, advisors and field experience.

Berry’s journey took 10 years to complete and included obtaining her master in divinity degree, completing field work in Mattapoisett, working in St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River to learn about chaplaincy and providing pastoral and spiritual care in an interfaith environment, preaching and teaching at a local church for feedback and advice and completing a psychological evaluation.

“It has been a long journey, and the path to ordination was difficult,” she said. “It was difficult to imagine that’s where God was calling me, and then to work on it.”

On Sunday, Nov. 17 Berry was ordained at the United Congregational Church in Middletown, Rhode Island, making history as the first woman ordained there in 330 years.

Berry said that she didn’t know she was going to be the first woman ordained until the church started preparing for its 330th anniversary, which she said was “exciting and humbling” to realize.

“A lot of courageous women have come before me, so it’s humbling to know that I am a part of this courageous group of women who have … done an incredible amount of work,” she said.

She added that she hopes that now that a woman has been ordained at the church it will be easier for others to “be the first of something else and also to continue to be what Jesus’ teachings lead us to be and against all odds.”

“If my little story can open a crack for more light to come into somebody’s life, then that is such a privilege,” Berry said.