Recently I met with a congregational search committee that was deadlocked in its discernment of the qualities needed for its next pastor. A segment of this progressive congregation saw social activism as a necessity for its pastoral leadership. One of…
Read MoreCelebrating Vocation in Worship
The church teaches that all people are gifted by their Creator and called by the Holy Spirit to offer themselves in service as a way of giving thanks for all that God has done and continues to do for us…
Read MoreAnswering in Unison: How Six Congregations Supported the Called
The Alban Institute has been interested for some time in the connections that exist between active participation in a congregation and what people do in the world. Specifically, we wanted to know how participation in a congregation assists people in…
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…
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