Ministry Report for 2021
And God brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Deuteronomy 26:9
This has been a big year, with many highs and lows. I celebrated the release of my book, The Women’s Lectionary: Preaching the Women of the Bible throughout the Year. I grieved the deaths of friends and family, including two grandparents. It felt like a leap of faith when my partner and I moved to Greensboro a few months before my 40th birthday. Though the pandemic goes on, I am grateful for the chance to spend some time with friends and family, and to be in a more comfortable place. The Spirit continues to move, and I am doing my best to listen!
The year started like the last several, with Intro Preaching at Candler School of Theology. This was my fifth year as a TA for the class, and third as the head TA. I was pretty sure that it would be my last, so I documented all of the tasks of head TA for the next person in the role. Over the rest of the year, I had many teaching opportunities, including a six-week course for Woodbrooke, a six-week module for the Quaker Student Leadership Program at Guilford College, and Bible studies for North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative) annual sessions and Western Yearly Meeting. Most of these offerings were related to my book, and especially the series on Evil Queens and Wicked Stepmothers, which has been very popular. I also continued to sell my online course, Preaching with Confidence. One of the joys this year was preaching coaching, which I hope to do more often.
In April, my friend Anna died. She was 33. Anna was chronically ill and knew that this was coming, and she and I had planned her memorial service together. The service was based on an Episcopal liturgy, with her favorite songs and hymns. The week of her memorial was a strange time for me. While I was grieving the loss of my friend, I also found working with Anna’s family and friends to organize and lead her memorial deeply satisfying. I got to use pastoral and professional skills that often are not called on. One of the challenges was that Anna was clear that she wanted the service to reflect her queer identity, despite the presence of some more conservative friends and family. I was grateful that I could give her the memorial she wanted.
Much of my work this year centered around The Women’s Lectionary, beginning with editing the final proof and working with the team at Westminster John Knox Press to finalize and promote the book. Promoting the book was a lot of work! I managed a social media strategy, wrote blog posts and articles for Working Preacher and Fidelia, guest preached for Presbyterian, Methodist, and Quaker churches (via Zoom and in person), and did online events and interviews for podcasts and other media. It was thrilling to see my book for the first time, and I feel honored that so many people have connected with it. At the same time, I found much of the publicity draining, and it was challenging to respond to some mean-spirited responses online. As a result, I took social media off my phone around the time of my book launch, and that has been a healthy decision for me.
I have had so much support this year. I continued to meet monthly with my anchoring committee, spiritual director, and another woman in ministry. I am grateful to Deborah Shaw for her eldering on multiple projects (and Sid Kitchen’s tech support!). Thank you to everyone who helped with the promotion of The Women’s Lectionary, especially my launch team and the local arrangements committee who helped plan my launch party. My friends and family have also done so much to support me through all of the changes this year.
I feel like my self-care has been pretty good this year. I have been sleeping better and I have kept my weekly practice of taking Saturday as a sabbath. Daily prayer, walks, and yoga help keep me grounded. I took two vacations this year: a week off at home in January and a week on the Washington coast in May. I have enjoyed gathering with friends, online and in person when it is possible. Troy and I have spent a lot of time together during the pandemic, reading, watching movies, and playing games.
It has been a joy to connect with other ministers online and in person, often on walks. I have noticed some patterns. Some ministers are doing well, but many are exhausted. Ministers have been going through the challenges of the past few years at the same time as everyone else, with no more distance or better information than anyone else. This is leading to decision fatigue and burnout. People are finding new ways to connect with religious communities (I saw this with Church of Mary Magdalene and it has only increased during the pandemic). This is going to change how we do church and ministry, in ways we can see now and ways we can’t predict. I feel fortunate that I can do so much work online–teaching, preaching, and connecting.
Someone recently asked if I am a released Friend, and I said that in a way, I am self-released. My part-time legal work provides some financial stability that allows me to do ministry. Worship with Friendship Meeting feeds my spirit. I am not on any committees or boards, which provides space for me to focus on work, much of which is outside of Friends. Given all of the changes in ministry, it’s possible that the kind of cobbled-together, online ministry that I have been developing for the past few years will become more common.
I have done more work for Friends this past year than I have in a long time. In large part, this is because Quaker groups and organizations have been reaching out to me and they have been willing to pay for my work. Most of the ministry I have done for Friends has centered around ways to read the Bible; I enjoy giving Quakers tools for engaging with Scripture, and I have received good feedback. I still feel called to be a Friend for those outside of Quakers, and I have continued to share Quaker values and practices with those in other traditions. This balance of ministry to Quakers and non-Quakers feels good for now.
Looking ahead, I expect to build on the work I have been doing. I started the year with an event at Powell House and I have more planned with Inner Ground and Candler Women, Theology, and Ministry. I will be leading another course for Woodbrooke beginning in February called Women Who Speak for God: Prophetesses in the Bible. I look forward to more guest preaching. I am planning to take a vacation to Santa Fe when it is safe to do so. One of my goals for the year is to pay off my remaining credit card debt. I am considering finding a new part-time job (my legal work was not as stable as I would like over the past year). I have been working with my agent on a potential new book project.
I am grateful to be here in this place, and I look forward to planting seeds and deepening connections in the coming year.