by Allison Sandlin Liles How does one distinguish between two separate motherhoods when both are twenty-four hour a day jobs? My toddler son, Hill, knows me as Mama, while my parish (despite my resistance) knows me as Mother. These two vocations fight constantly for my attention, causing me to feel that I am short-changing them [...]
In the Absence of Creativity
by Stacey Midge The smell of incense hit them first, wafting out of the darkness inside the chapel doors. Then they met a cacophony of voices shouting, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Hosts!” A large chair draped in white cloth sat in the center of the room, surrounded by dozens of candles, [...]
Naming Number Five
by Cindy Keyser Number Five. That’s what my dad called the baby growing inside me. He had waited long enough for us to decide on a name. This baby would be his fifth grandchild, but the name stuck for all of us until the day he was born: Number Five. It really wasn’t until that [...]
Homesick for Holy Week
by Ann Bonner-Stewart Ah, Holy Week. Slightly odd worship services most churches only do once a year, complete with lots of minuatie and logistical details that easily lead to long "notes for next year." There's trying to say something novel, or, if not novel, at least somewhat profound and maybe even somewhat memorable, about something [...]
I Did Learn That in Seminary
by Laura Jean Torgerson I would like to think that I’ve always been a little uncomfortable with the refrain that passes among clergy: “Divinity school sure didn’t prepare us for this.” Or sometimes, from seasoned laypeople to clergy with the ink still wet on their diplomas: “I bet you didn’t learn that in seminary!” Maybe [...]
Enter Salvation
by Kate Murphey I am a woman whose love language is touch, and as a single woman–let alone as a reverend–it’s been a big black vortex of emptiness in my life. It’s always present. Sometimes it’s entwined lightly enough I can ignore it or rationalize it away, but other times it feels more like Davy [...]
Life as a Dressing Room
by Sarah McCaslin On a blustery but sunny October afternoon, I officiated the wedding of one of my dearest friends…and also served as a bridesmaid. When the bride first conceived of the dual-role minister/bridesmaid, she envisioned me processing down the aisle along with the other two bridesmaids (all three of us in matching dresses), and [...]
Better Than That: A Review of Love Wins by Rob Bell
by Lee Hull Moses Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, the highly-publicized book by megachurch superstar/pastor Rob Bell, arrived on my doorstep in the same Amazon delivery as Eugene Peterson’s memoir The Pastor. The heft of the books and the size of the type on [...]