Career

After studies at Allegheny College and the General Theological Seminary, as well as McMaster University in Canada, Swain was ordained to the diaconate by the Right Reverend Robert Campbell Witcher of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island on December 16, 1987, and to the priesthood by the Right Reverend Ambrose Weekes, acting for the Bishop of Long Island, on June 29, 1988. Swain served as curate at the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, New York, and curate and then rector at Saint Clement"s Church (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) (rector 1993–2001).