Service of Ordination

SERVICE OF ORDINATION 2020 I wish you knew What it’s like How it feels To watch your kitchen table tyrant wrapped in a red cloak of victory

Letter of Solidarity in Regard to the Involuntary Leave of Rev. Elizabeth Davidson and Rev. Paige Swaim-Presley

To YCWI members, alumnae, and others working toward justice, As Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, “if one member suffers, all suffer together with it.” (12:26)  We have been heartbroken to hear of the decision of a United Methodist bishop to place a YCWI member and a YCWI alumna on involuntary leave […]

How is Self-Care Different from Soul Care?

If you feel like your feed is infiltrated with reminders about the importance of self-care, you are not alone. The $1.5 trillion self-care industry is expansive and pervasive in its influence. It isn’t an accident that you are receiving reminder after reminder of the ways that you can ensure that you are taking care of […]

Re-doing CPE: Back to the beginning

I live on the East Coast, and when I was in seminary looking for a CPE program with last-minute availability I found a spot at a nearby hospital. It was accredited by the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (CPSP). This organization’s CPE requirements were good enough for my ordaining body, and at the time, […]

The Spirituality of Travel

We don’t often realize it, but Jesus traveled a lot. He was always on the move in the Gospels, from Jerusalem to Galilee to Samaria to Nazareth. He traveled places his disciples didn’t want him to go. He traveled by himself when he needed a rest. He traveled where there were crowds depending on him. […]

What to Expect When Your Pastor is Expecting

Dear Young Clergywoman, My pastor just announced to our congregation that she is pregnant. We are all very excited for her, but we also haven’t been in this situation before. What tips do you have for celebrating this news with her? What would be helpful? What should we avoid?  Thank you! -An Excited Congregant

The Work of Real Self-Care: Holding Pain and Hope Together

“The work of real self-care is to hold pain and hope together.” -Pooja Lakshmin Back in December at a pastors’ gathering, my local denominational body used a polling app to ask the group a series of questions about stress and burnout. The consensus was clear: this was a group of people reporting high amounts of […]

A “Subversive Sister-Saint” Post-Easter Reading List

For my Doctor of Ministry program in Faith, Health & Social Equity I was afforded the opportunity to choose any elective I wanted last spring. I chose to take a course titled, “Women’s Religious Leadership as Subversion” taught by Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber at Drew Theological School. Although the class was crafted and mandatory for […]

Mindfulness and Ministry: Cognitive Based Compassion Training

I’m re-doing my CPE. That’s right. I did it already: not just one unit, but four, and now I’m doing it again. That story will be told in a separate article. This article is about a valuable practice I learned about in my second-time-around second unit: Cognitive Based Compassion Training, or CBCT. 

Peace is a Practice (Book Review)

In her book Peace is a Practice, artist and musician Morgan Harper Nichols posits that finding peace is not finding a state of being but rather joining a river flowing all around us. Perhaps the reason we aren’t at peace is because we are so busy that we miss the river of peace flowing slowly […]