I met with Margee Iddings on March 31st at her house in Alexandria, Virginia. I met Margee a couple of years ago as I was preparing for Jeff's three month sabbatical period. As Jeff was taking on global adventures, Pilgrims wanted to have a sabbatical period that involved growth and exploration. I directed myself to Margee who is known throughout the world for creative and imaginative liturigcal ideas. Margee walked with me through the three month sabbatical, helping me expand Pilgrim's experience with ritual, liturgy, and living into our thematic structure of "Connections and Clarity." Since the sabbatical time, Margee has become a Parish Associate at Pilgrims plus remains my spiritual director.

This is how I would sum up my relationship with Margee: Margee + Ashley=energy+creativity+support+encouragement+trust=depth. Depth is defined as, " a part that is far from the outside or surface; profound or intense state; the quality of being deep; the degree of intensity; the quality of being profound (as in insight) or full (as of knowledge); the quality or state of being complete or thorough." My relationship with Margee is one that takes me to my depths--another characteristic of the other women I will eventually interview. As Margee has challenged and pushed me to explore the boundaries of worship and liturgical ritual, I am taken to a part of me that is far from the outside or surface of myself. As I drove away from my interview with Barbara Gerlach, I had this intense awareness of my surroundings. As I drove away from Margee's house, my face literally was tingly hot; to me, signifying the flood of memories coming back to me from other experiences of being taken to my own depth while offered love and support.

Like Barbara Gerlach, Margee graduated from Union Theological Seminary in NYC. As Margee described her experience at Union, I heard my own story. Margee went to Union not really having a clear sense of why or how she would use her Masters of Religious Education and Sacred Music degree. While Margee was at Union, she was challenged by the liberation theology presented to her yet soaking it all up like a sponge. I, too, went to Union without a clear vision or call but I knew I had to go. I, too, was challenged by the liberating theology oozing out of Union but embraced it as normative and vital.

Like Barbara Gerlach, Margee has been part of a women's consciousness raising group (nicknamed the Burp Group) that has been a place of support, advocacy and polticizing choices and decisions made within the church. So with Margee I have this powerful force for creative, liturgical expression in my life along with a fierce advocate for a Church that embraces and lives by a radical nature. By radical nature, I mean those who identify as followers of the Way need to get up, move along, and take political risks for the sake of Jesus.

Near the end of our interview, I asked Margee about a symbol that would represent her life right now. She said, "a crone's crown." Margee has a croning ceremony when she was 50 and sees her call right now as a wise woman sprinkling encouragement to those along the way. A crone's crown usually has a potpourri of herbs on top so I'd like to picture Margee sprinkling lavendar on me--that's my favorite herb like flower. It's so smelly good. While we were talking, we both used some Model Magic to make images, kind of like doddling with clay. Margee made an image of her crown. I made a bowl with a music note to represent Margee's love of music, a circle for her crown and a "u" for Union.

I have about 40 minutes of my interview with Margee below. The interview goes something like this:

Margee shares her first steppingstone--experience of playing the organ in churches, starting in the fourth grade. (the clanking in the beginning of the recording is me putting butter on my muffin. That goes away. I'm also working on sound quality).

7:00--Margee shares about going to Wilson College
9:45--Union Theological Seminary and experiences in NYC
18:00--Margee's steppingstone on getting a D.Min at San Francisco Theological Seminary
23:00--Margee fires her D.Min advisor! Gets connected to Elisabeth Fiorenza.
25:00--Margee's relationship with Nelle Morton
26:00--Margee's' relationship with Beverly Harrison
28:00--cost of Margee's radical nature in her life
30:00--the joy of Margee's radical nature
32:00--radical nature of the church & the image of God
35:00--Christian community, sacraments, and being named

Listen here:

Initially I had planned to use this blog for the sharing of interviews for my 10 Years of Connections Project. After some reflection, I've decided to open up the postings to women who do nothing but inspire me.

Nancy Lee Head is one of those women.

Nancy Lee is a long time member of Church of the Pilgrims and on March 13th, Nancy Lee turned 70 years old. Instead of a birthday party, Nancy Lee wanted to take a step back and mark this milestone in a liturgical celebration. After some creative conversations, Nancy Lee decided to have a croning ceremony. For a long time, to be called a crone was an insult. The very word implied a wrinkled, hunchbacked old woman, unwanted and unloved. Women who had reached an advanced age were dismissed as useless hags, and there was nothing to celebrate about it at all.

Now the word "crone" is being reclaimed as a wise woman and a croning ceremony, for Nancy Lee, was a celebration of the wisdom gained over the years and the continued gift of living with purpose and passion for the world.

Nancy Lee Head was croned in the Bird Room at the Church of the Pilgrims in a ceremony attended by 25 friends. The ceremony included scripture, hymns, prayer, and Nancy’s stories—funny and profound--about her faith journey. In one moment of storytelling, as Nancy Lee was sharing about her "Life as Ministry," she shared of her vision to be ordained in the Presbyterian church in the mid-1970's. Nancy Lee shared that she went as far as to talk with a seminary admissions counselor who told her ordination was out of the question because of these three reasons: 1) her gender; 2) her age (too old or too young at 37?); 3) Nancy Lee's diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Nancy Lee was denied the gift of ordained leadership but Nancy Lee forged ahead, re-interpreting her life, her actions within the realm of sacramental life. Nancy Lee shared that as she washed the back of a friend, a back embedded with lice, Nancy Lee saw the waters of baptism flowing over, caring for and loving her friend. As Nancy Lee served meals at soup kitchens, she saw herself serving the bread of life, the body broken.

For me, Nancy Lee builds community wherever she goes, living a sacramental life, seeing the Earth as a place where all should flourish, grow and be held in deep and loyal love and compassion. Nancy Lee resists those powers that deny life, moving through her days on her scooter with the awesome bumper sticker, "Don't Postpone Joy,"

At the end of Nancy Lee's croning ceremony, attendees read a Litany for a Wise Woman;
which said, in part:

Nancy Lee vowed to be a "Wise Guide" to others, sharing her God-given gift of wisdom with young people, family, friends, community, country, and the planet. She was then crowned a crone with a crown woven from field grasses.

Nancy Lee's croning ceremony teaches me that we should be creating liturgical rituals that celebrate marking points in people's lives: high school graduation, college graduation, loss of a job, divorce, birthing, adoption, grief work....the list is endless of how the church can form life around ritual, moving us to act with a deeper sense of purpose and commitment for the sake of the planet.

I was also so taken by Nancy Lee's storytelling--sharing stories of love, community, humor and vulnerability. It is in our stories that life takes shape, that the Holy is revealed. No other place. No other planet. The connection between storytelling and faith isn't new to me, but Nancy Lee's storytelling took that belief to another depth and dimension.

I hope these croning ceremonies continue to be created and thrive so I can see not only the women on my 10 Years of Connections list be croned but also other women in my life.....Maddie Goff-Glennon, Laura Pippenger, Emily Presley-McGowan, Patricia Massey, MaryAnn McKibben Dana, Mary Ester, Diana Bruce...I hope these companions see themselves as the incarnate of wisdom as life continues to unfold.