Stough was ordained deacon on May 29, 1955, by George M. Murray, Suffragan Bishop of Alabama.Wood, Mattie Pegues. (1955). The Life of St. John's Parish: A History of St. John's Episcopal Church from 1834 to 1955, p. 190. Black Belt Press, Alabama. . He was then ordained priest in December of the same year by Charles Carpenter, Bishop of Alabama. He then served as rector of St. Andrew's Church in Sylacauga, Alabama, and St. Mary's Church in Childersburg, Alabama, from 1955 till 1959. Later, in 1959, he became rector of Grace Church in Sheffield, Alabama, where he remained until 1965. In 1965 he became a missioner in Japan and served as priest-in-charge of All Souls Church in Machinato, Okinawa Island. He then returned to the United States in 1968 and served as a missioner in Alabama. In 1970 he was appointed as rector of St. John's Church in Decatur, Alabama, where he served only briefly before his election to the Alabama episcopate.
