by Robert Leventhal While attending a rabbinic conference, I joined a group discussion on what lay leaders expect of rabbis. The rabbis described various stories of unfair one-sided reviews that had injured their self-esteem and weakened their relationship with the congregation….
Read MoreThe Leading Edge: What Were They Thinking?
by James P. Wind For those who seek to persuade the rest of us that the world is falling apart, the past few weeks have provided substantial ammunition. The situation in Iraq by itself provides mounting evidence that things are getting…
Read MoreRediscovering the Point: Congregational Sabbaticals
by Roger Kruger In bestselling British author Terry Pratchett’s book Monstrous Regiment, a magic sword admits to a longing to become a plowshare. “I don’t know what that is,” the sword confesses, “but it sounds like an existence with some point…
Read MoreBecoming a Clergy Mother: A Study of How Motherhood Changes Ministry
by Pamela Cooper-White Images of birth have long held power and meaning in Christian theology. Indeed, the sacrament of baptism has birth as its central metaphor. What more powerful image of the flowering of human sexuality into birth than the ritual…
Read MoreSupport and Solidarity: How Clergywomen Create Healthy Connections
by Melissa Bane Sevier In Knoxville, Tennessee, several women meet in a restaurant and open gifts of candles in spring colors. They look like any other group of women friends having lunch together, but their day jobs separate them from the…
Read MoreWhen Women Lead the Flock
by Ann Svennungsen For over 30 years I have thought about the pioneering role of women as leaders. It began in 1972 when I lost to a boy in the vote for student body president of my high school in Shelby,…
Read MoreAffixing Our Name to the Holy Narrative
by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso Over two thousand years ago, 70 men cloistered in separate rooms, tradition tells us, wrote the Greek Septuagint, the first translation of the Bible. On March 21, 1992, 70 women joined to speak out together to honor…
Read MoreCongregations Magazine, Summer 2004
Women in Leadership Contents IN FOCUS: When Women Lead the Flock Fund the Theological Education president Ann Svennungsen explores how women’s leadership in the church differs from men’s Affixing Our Name to the Holy Narrative Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso reveals…
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