What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life?
The world would split open.
From Cries of the Spirit, edited by Marilyn Sewell

In January 2009, I will celebrate ten years of ministry at Church of the Pilgrims (PCUSA). I was right out of Union Seminary, finished a CPE stint at the Washington Hospital Center, and was doing the soulless work of temping when I got my position at Church of the Pilgrims.

A year later I was ordained into the UCC through this position and life has continued to unfold since: I birthed three amazing kids, witnessed new life in other ways, sat at the bedside of death, shed tears for myself and others, and experienced the complexity and emotional depths of ministry with a justice loving congregation. I have loved Bob and received his love back.

As I move into a new decade of ordained ministry life at Pilgrims, I’ve realized I need to take a step back and re-connect with the foundations of my values, my faith, and Spirit. Over the next year I will engage in a “Connections Tour” as I sit down with vital, ordained women in my life to hear their own stories of life and faith. I want to hear how faith has changed, been strengthened, been left vulnerable, been made new over and over for key clergy women who have been part of my theological and moral compass. I have come this far not on my own but with the profound companionship of clergy women who walk gently and lightly on this earth for the sake of justice for the Whole Earth.

Over the next twelve months, I will interview these ten women either face-to-face or over the phone to hear how their lives have been shaped and formed over the years. I need to hear these stories so; in return, I can hear my own story and do my own deep reflections on where I’ve come from and how I want to step into this new era and decade of life and work. Hearing stories of others will be my own consciousness-raising about what I believe and how I want to continue to live in God’s Way. As the Dictionary of Feminist Theology states:

Story is the articulation of one’s experience in verbal narrative in song, poetry, fiction, autobiography, liturgy, and sacred texts. The hearing, telling, naming and inclusion of women’s stories in necessary to doing our theology; without our stories, there is no feminist theology. New metaphors, new relationships to the principalities and powers, new images of and relationship with the Holy emerge from women telling their stories, in being “heard to speech.” Placing stories of our experience at its source makes feminist theologizing an act of justice and healing: a radical act of “going to the roots.”

Ten Year Connections Tour List

1. Rev. Anna Olson, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Long Beach, California
2. Rev. Murphy Davis, Presbyterian Church USA, Founder and Partner of the Open Door Community, Atlanta, Georgia
3. Rev. Dr. Jennifer Harvey, American Baptist, Professor of Religion and Ethics at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa
4. Rev. Ruth Garwood, United Church of Christ, Executive Director of the UCC Coalition for GLBT Concerns
5. Rev. Louise Green, United Church of Christ, Minister of Social Justice at All Souls D.C, Washington, D.C.
6. Rev. Kathleen Ennis-Durnstein, United Church of Christ, Senior Chaplain at Children’s Hospital, Washington, D.C.
7. Rev. Barbara Gerlach, United Church of Christ, Colombian Human Rights Activist and retired clergy from First Congregational Church, Washington, D.C.
8. Rev. Kristen Klein-Cechettini, Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), Director of Life Development, Resurrection MCC, Houston, Texas
9. Rev. Dr. Mary Foulke, Senior Associate for Christian Formation, St. Luke in the Fields Episcopal, New York, New York
10. Rev. Dr. Margee Iddings, Presbyterian Church USA, Alexandria, Virginia