ClergyWOMAN

 

There were 18 members in my ordination class, half of us were women.  From that  moment on our class was always identified as the ordination class with half women.  It got old real quick. The majority of us were in our mid-twenties having gone from college to seminary to ordination.  A more revelatory fact is that

of the nine women ordained together only one made it to the ten year mark still involved in congregational ministry.  When I attended Clergywomen Conferences the statistic was that if a woman made it to ten years in congregational ministry you were set. I came close, going into Extension Ministry (any type of ministry setting outside the congregational setting) at year nine.

I still get a kick out of the moments in peoples' lives that I have had invitation and opportunity simply by the fact of being ordained. I was the second person to hold a new born infant; I've anointed, blessed children, houses, teddy bears, vans and trips, Bibles, trees and grounds.

I have spent decades doing the job of clergy which a parishioner once described as "Hatch, Match and Dispatch."

I have also been thought to be a witch, called a heretic, accused of re-writing scripture, had my freezer checked (still not sure what they were looking for) and been verbally attacked and physically threatened.

My journey as a clergywoman has been supported by fellow clergywomen whom sadly had their own horror stories experienced and survived. We tend to bond over those tales. And, also by strong men who know who they are and their call and are never threatened.

Women continue to answer the call.

Women continue to build from a feminist foundation not of top-down power, yet, of all-in circles.

Women, will cuss and cry from the pulpits and at the protests.

A clergywoman friend tells the story that having pastored a congregation for several years, one Sunday the guest preacher was a clergyman.  A young boy whom had only ever known Pastor Stacey was gobsmacked at the sight of man in the pulpit and explained, "When did the church start letting men do this?!!?"

Here's to the women who bear, birth, bless, bemoan and become the communities of faith that nurture us all.