McCrea was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church on June 7, 1943, at the
Church of the Advent in
Boston by the Bishop of Massachusetts
Henry Knox Sherrill, and priest in December of the same year by Bishop
James De Wolf Perry of Rhode Island. He served as assistant minister at
St Martin's Church in
Providence, Rhode Island, between 1943 and 1946 and then priest-in-charge of St John's Mission in
Dallas. In 1948, St John's became a parish church and hence McCrea became its first rector. Simultaneously he was also principal and chaplain of the adjoining school. ==Episcopacy==