BEautiful!

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder…why don’t more of us behold beauty? I have a friend who used to regularly greet me by saying, “Hello, beautiful!”  This was often accompanied with a smile and hug, and I knew she meant it.  I would not say that before that I had a bad […]

Sex(ism) and The Single Rev

Feminism seems to be a dirty word these days. At a recent all-women roller derby practice one of the organizers cheerfully described the league as being run by women, for women, but not, you know, “feminist” (the scare quotes were implied), and I was baffled. This denigration of the women’s movement is a shock to […]

An Irrepressible and Irresistible Call

They say, “write what you know.”  And the two things I have always known are books and church. My dad has been a Baptist minister all my life, so church has been a part of the normal routine; church members have been like extended family.  Likewise, shelves and stacks of books filled our home.  Both […]

Pathos, Passion, and Pine Valley

When Bridesmaids came out earlier this year, much cultural noise surrounded questions of box office success.  Would men go see this?  Could a comedy about women really make any money?  Apparently, long standing wisdom suggests no; even if the finale hadn’t featured Wilson Philips, I would have delighted in the success it found. It’s astounding […]

“The Reverend Doctor”

I might be one of the first among my young clergywomen peers to become a doctor. Why did I do it? My competitive nature.  I am the youngest of five children and three of my siblings are doctors (two medical and one academic).  The one without his doctorate is the smartest of all, but he […]

Sinners in the Hands of a Nursing God

Outwardly, I’m sure it looked as if I was listening intently as the assisting minister read from Isaiah. Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Inwardly, I was counting the number of hours since my […]

The Need to Scream

That is my picture in the Fidelia’s Sisters header. The one with the pink hair and the guitar; that’s me, or it was at the first conference of the Young Clergy Women Project. A few years later, my hair is a bit more normal looking, although I suppose not everyone would consider near-platimum blonde with […]

Love the Ones You’re With

Here at The Ones We Love, we’ve developed an unofficial tradition of publishing an article each summer about our latest conference for The Young Clergy Women Project. Even in 2009, when we didn’t have a conference, we published an article about the sisterhood found at that year’s board meeting. I’m glad to write this next […]

9-11: A Sermon

Today marks the anniversary of September 11, 2001. And, just so we’re all kind of on the same page, I thought I’d very briefly recap what happened. On that Tuesday morning, two planes flew into the World Trade Center, which was basically several really tall office buildings in New York City. Another plane flew into […]

That Darn Collar

Hours after receiving my denomination’s final approval for ordination a little over a year ago, I began pouring over catalogs and websites trying to decide what type of clergy shirts to order. Long sleeve or short sleeve? All black or a mix of colors? The amount of time I spent doing this is quite ridiculous […]