The Network of The Young Clergy Women Project

by the Community Board

The Young Clergy Women Project is more than the articles that we offer on Fidelia’s Sisters. We launched this e-zine as a means to tell our stories — but more than these articles, we are a network of the youngest ordained clergy women.

We are always reaching out to each other to support each other through our calls to be servants of God, agents of change and sisters in Christ. However, this e-zine was not the origins of our journey. We truly began through an underground, password-protected blog where comments to particular prompts went on for pages. There were limitations to that mode of communication. We wanted more than it had to offer so we moved to NING.

This past July, it came to our attention that NING will no longer provide its services for free — and so, we are looking to make a change to continue building our network of young clergy women. On Monday October 4, 2010, we will formally end our relationship with NING. The password-protected page that we shared will cease to exist.

But, it’s not the end. As a young organization, we are still learning how we can be more supportive of young women in ordained ministry. We are in the midst of transition right now, looking at new platforms for building and strengthening our community online.

In this transition time, you can keep up your young clergy women relationships on the old underground, password-protected blog (username and password will be sent out to all members in the October newsletter), as well as by following us on Facebook and Twitter.  If you’re hoping to meet in the flesh, beyond the mysterious power of the internet, there’s good news for you too. We’re looking forward to another conference in the summer of 2011. Please look forward to those details soon.

In this time of transition, and always, we invite you to share the good news that this network of young clergy women has meant to you.  Please share your story in the comments to this article or on the underground password-protected blog.

The Community Board includes the wonderful leadership of 10 women serving in 7 different denominations. Their work builds and expands TYCWP network with wonderful events including the Conference 2010.

Photograph from worship at the Conference 2010 by Elsa A. Peters used under a Creative Commons License.

Are you an ordained woman under the age of 40? Email youngclergywomen (at) gmail (dot) com to become a member of the Young Clergy Women Project! Members receive access to a password protected online community, monthly e-newsletters, and advance notice of upcoming conferences and events.