Happy International Women’s Day!
I am blessed to have been raised by amazing women and a lineage of incredible ladies. My gram, mom, aunts, cousins... each and all were strong, independent, fierce, boundary breakers, constant, caring, creative. On this day and each day, I re-member and I seek to follow their leading.
There is the now often told story of a girl in church who has only experienced a woman as pastor of her congregation. One Sunday a male clergy was the guest preacher. Following the worship service, the girl said to her mother, “I didn’t know the church also ordained men??!!?”
In every instance, I was always the first female clergy to lead the congregation. The church folks were not ready. There was the congregation whose pulpit was enclosed, and one literally stepped inside. The microphone was unyielding and bolted to the wood. My first Sunday, they thought female clergy equals soft spoken. Wrong thought. A worse move were turning the microphone up to level 10. The style of the pulpit and type and arrangement of the microphone prevented me from creating any distance. Any way you spin it, I’m loud. Following worship, the lay leader approached, and I told him to be certain next Sunday to have the microphone at the lowest setting. In reply, he wriggled his finger in his ear and exclaimed, “That’s already been noted, Reverend.”
Other not so pleasant experiences were during an administrative board meeting having my office called the broom closet and various references to my being a witch. I also once received a low review from a parishioner because…wait for it…. I did not wear nylons.
All justice work is a journey, and we share our accounts and hopefully arrive at a time when we can look back and see how far we have come. I know that both male and female clergy and parishioners must support and prepare the way for women in leadership roles….and not just those in the church.
Strong Women:
May we know them
May we raise them
May we be them;
amen!
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