On April 25, 1817, Moore ordained the 45-year-old Ravenscroft as a deacon at the Monumental Church, Richmond, Virginia, and eleven days later advanced him to the priesthood in St. George's Episcopal Church, Fredericksburg. Ravenscroft was assigned a parish near his home: St. James Parish in Boydton, in Mecklenburg County (split off from Lunenburg County) and the terminus of an important plank road to Petersburg. He also remarried, to Sarah, who would also have no children and die on January 15, 1829, about a year before her husband.