by “Pink Shoes” Special thanks to managing editor Ann Bonner-Stewart, who brought to our attention this poem, which illustrates the power of words and the ways that words interact with one another in different contexts. Do you have some words or images to share? Send them along! See our submission guidelines for more.
Family Business
by Carol Howard Merritt I asked some pastor friends, “Looking back on your career, what would you do different?” And one answered, “I would have never been a pastor. If I knew what kind of toll the pastorate was going to have on my sons, I would have never gotten into the job.” “Really? Then, [...]
Prayers for a Budding Year
by Maria Bergius Kramer In the spirit of those wonderful “gift of the month clubs”, we offer a year’s worth of prayers by Maria Bergius Krämer. She introduces these prayers with some description of the tradition of New Years’ worship in her congregation.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
by Phoebe Jones I am a fairly new pastor, and I live in the same parsonage my bishop lived in when she was a new pastor. It’s located in a small town, on a street where the same people have lived for decades. This means that as I interviewed, the bishop wasn’t just curious to [...]
Single and Attached
by Anonymous When I got anxious writing my ordination paper, it was John who rubbed my shoulders. Outlining your story of call, understanding of polity, history, ordained ministry along with a concise "theology of everything," in 30 pages or so is clearly a daunting task, and those times when the spaces between the words were [...]
Doing the Math On My Vocation, Part II
Name Withheld I think about leaving ministry when the liturgist is being passive-aggressive. I think about leaving ministry when worship attendance is down. I think about leaving ministry when I can’t afford music classes for my kids. I think about leaving ministry when another Christmas Eve goes by without seeing my family. I think about [...]
Small Epiphanies
We are people of the book. This is no epiphany – great or small. Whether we offer chapter and verse to prove our point, sing the psalms or seek comfort in Jesus’ words, we are women that center our lives on text. On Epiphany, we celebrate the books that have offered us strength in the [...]
New Year…New Opportunities
How has The Young Clergy Women Project changed your life? (That would be the organization behind Fidelia’s Sisters.) This is your chance to tell the world by participating in our New Catchphrase Contest. Simply get your creative juices flowing and come up with a slogan that sums up what TYCWP is all about. Previously we’ve [...]
New Call for a New Year
by Heather Bartlow Are you thinking about a new call this New Year? 2008 was a year of interviewing for me as I searched for my new call. Part of the process, of course, involved the dreaded telephone interview. These phone interviews can be very intimidating and uncomfortable, but I have found that there are [...]