Rachel Taber-Hamilton was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, in 1963. She grew up in a bi-cultural family, her father of English Protestant descent and her mother of the Shackan First Nation. From her father, a psychologist, she learned “to be a critical thinker, to have the courage to advocate for the marginalized, to explore new ideas and develop new understandings.” From her mother, she learned “about the sacredness of Creation,” which would inspire within her a sense of responsibility “for the well-being of Indigenous people and [her] community, for being a healing force and living medicine for communal healing, and supporting every person and being to live fully into reaching their fullest potential of what Creator had made in them to be.”
Taber-Hamilton graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Arts from The State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo in 1985. It was during a research project for an undergraduate anthropology course that Taber-Hamilton converted from agnosticism to Christianity. While many of her peers chose to study Indigenous communities for the assignment, Taber-Hamilton worshiped with a monastery of Trappist monks. Through the experience, she came to be baptized and confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1988, Taber-Hamilton earned her Master of Arts in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She followed it with a PhD in Folklore Studies from Indiana University in 1991 before earning her Master of Divinity from Loyola University Chicago’s Institute of Pastoral Studies in 1994. While in seminary, she met her Episcopalian husband, the Rev. Nigel John Taber-Hamilton and was received into The Episcopal Church.
Taber-Hamilton did not seek ordination immediately after graduating seminary. Instead, she worked as a chaplain, eventually becoming Board Certified through the Association of Professional Chaplains. (She would continue to work as a chaplain for several years after her ordination as well, advancing to Director of Pastoral Care for Maine General Health System from 2008 to 2011.) When she discerned her call to the priesthood, she found herself challenged from all sides, the monks who were appalled a woman might seek the priesthood and those among The Episcopal Church who were unconvinced of her Anglicanism. As she reflected to writer Annie Scholl in 2024, “It was ironic to me that feeling called within my father’s culture–dominant culture, white culture–to express my culture to both leadership and spiritual leadership was basically met with closed doors and iron bars by the white men protecting it.” Nevertheless, in 2004, she became the first Indigenous person to be ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia.
In the Diocese of Olympia, Taber-Hamilton served her community in many roles. She founded the support organization Circle of Color. She sat on the Diocesan Council from 2006 to 2008. She chaired the First Nations Committee from 2004 to 2008. And, beginning in 2011, she shepherded the community of Trinity Church in Everett as the church’s Rector.
At the national level, Taber-Hamilton served on the Executive Council’s Committee on Indigenous Ministries. In 2022, on Day 3 of the 80th General Convention in Baltimore, Maryland, she was elected Vice-President of the House of Deputies. Taber-Hamilton was the first Indigenous woman and first ordained woman elected to this position since its establishment in 1964. She ran for President of the House of Deputies at the 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2024 but was defeated by incumbent Julia Ayala Harris.
Today, Taber-Hamilton still serves as Rector of Trinity Church in Everett, Washington, writes on her blog Greening Spirit, and continues her advocacy work.