A Companion for the Journey

  I sat in the blue Queen Anne’s chair (not mine) in the formal living room (not mine) of the parsonage (not mine, of course) and watched, nervously, as he took the cover off the grand upright piano (mine). He had a case of ancient-looking tools behind him on the bench, a cell phone in […]

I Chose to Share Our Grief

Unsuccessful pregnancy… fetal demise… no heartbeat… dilation & curettage… miscarriage.  These ugly words brought with them painful thoughts, grief, loss and disappointment.  “It feels very surreal,” I told my friend.  “Maybe when we hear the heartbeat, then it will feel real.  I have wanted this for so long, that I have a hard time believing […]

Thanks & Giving

Fall is a time of giving thanks in many cultures, particularly in the northern hemisphere, as it is our season of harvest. Fall is also the time of the annual giving campaign in many churches, also known as “stewardship season” or “pledge season.” Many people love celebrating Thanksgiving or Harvest Festival or similar holidays, but […]

My Saint Margaret

I have come across a few genuine miracles in my life. The Rev. Dr. Margaret Neill was one of them. I remember the first time I met her. I must have been in that impressionable teen/tween phase, and I had never met a woman preacher. It had always been men: Roman Catholic men with their […]

Holiness Hotspots

On a beautiful July evening this summer, I ate dinner at a little table out my back door.  In the glorious, long-lived light of summer evenings, my eye caught a patch of the neighbor’s yard across the street.  The light hitting the section of the yard was golden.  Sunlight was passing through the various kinds […]

When Procrastinating on the Sermon is Good

It was late July, and I was enjoying the school holiday break from my usual School Chaplaincy activities. Over those two weeks I had periodically glanced at the readings set for our staff commencement service on the first day back, at which I was to preach, but I was lost for ideas and put off […]

Blogging as Spiritual Practice

I have always loved writing. I was called to ministry when I was thirteen, but I felt called as a writer when I was eight years old. I won a school-wide poetry contest in the fourth grade. And when I went to college, I knew I was going on to seminary, so I decided to […]

The Risky Thing About Risk

I spent my first two years of ministry scared to death. Now, preaching and teaching do contain some measure of risk, and running a committee meeting can be a risky endeavor. These things were part of what I knew I was signing up for when I was ordained. They were part of the job. Likewise, […]

Ask a Young Clergy Woman: Solo-to-Senior Edition

Dear Askie, Help! After serving for years as a solo pastor, I’ve been called to a senior pastorate, at a church with an associate pastor (she is, as it happens, a somewhat-younger-than-me clergy woman). Yay! I’m excited about the possibilities this new call holds, but a bit concerned about working with an associate pastor for […]

Episodes of Holiness: Clergy on TV

  It really is a shock that there aren’t more TV shows about clergy. Doctors, lawyers, police, firefighters, college students…honestly, they have nothing on the wonderful strangeness of our careers. In what other profession can one day encompass breakfast with a group of teenagers, an office crisis situation around the location of a set of […]