Thanks. It means a lot for me to be able to share that with the Beloved Community.

Also, I have a joy. I was on NPR yesterday . Thanks for caring.”

Here’s the link to two outtakes from the interview. The longer segment (about ten minutes), can be found here, by fast forwarding through Hour One of the Sept. 29 broadcast until you get to minute 44:00.

Over and out,
The “Clergy Fashionista”

Love, PB

Be back soon!

Meanwhile, Boston-area PeaceBangers, don’t forget to watch me on WBZ (CBS) this coming Sunday morning on the “Sunday Mornings With Liz Walker Show.”

But go to church first!

xoxo PB

Welcome to PeaceBang’s Beauty Tips For Ministers!

As you can see, this is not a swanky blog with lots of hip graphics and brilliant organizational concept. This blog was started about a year ago by a minister for other ministers, to address the problem of our so often failing to communicate our inner vibrancy through our exterior appearance. Or as I put it, “the de-frumpification of the American clergy.”

I, your humble correspondent, am a lady of the cloth, not of the internet. I wouldn’t know an HTML code if it walked up and bit me on the nose. It is for this reason that I am particularly thrilled that a generous reader of this blog is going to re-design it soon so that it will be a lot more user-friendly and organized. Look for our freshly snazzed-up appearance somewhere around Easter, just when ministers are most in need of some snazz in our lives, wouldn’t you say?

Beauty Tips for Ministers is a on-line community of clergy– and includes some non-clergy readers who either just want either a good laugh or seek about how to dress professionally in a “casual Friday” world. We have readers from six different countries that I know of, and I conduct an enthusiastic private consultation with any minister who sends me an e-mail asking for advice. (Contrary to what was suggested on “Nightline,” no one in my congregation asks me for fashion advice!! In the interest of full disclosure, however, I should reveal that we do occasionally discuss shoes at meetings and I did once receive a fabulous red lipstick as a Christmas gift from a parishioner.)

I am not paid by anyone for anything that I write, so if you were wondering if CoverGirl is slipping me a check for every time that I sing the praises of their Outlast All-Day Lipcolor in Blush Pearl, the answer is “No, but if anyone from CoverGirl is listening, wouldn’t I be totally cute in a commercial?”

Scroll away, friends new and old. In these postings you will find heated arguments about shoes (no flip-flops! EVER!), rapturous recounting of the virtues of the Simple White Blouse, stern admonitions to gentlemen to Use Thy Norelco Nose Hair Trimmer, explanations of exfoliation, discussions on what to wear for a day that includes a funeral, a legislative session, a home visit, and a pizza party with the youth group, and general encouragement to all clergy to shine like the illuminating presence they were called to be– however charismatic or gentle, prayerful or prophetic, old, young, gay, straight, feminine or masculine, fat, thin, tall, short, bald or lushly-maned they happen to be.

As Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” No matter how gloriously spiritual any of us may be, we meet people not through the radiance of our souls first, but through a simple human encounter in bodily form. And frankly, if we think that religious community is the greatest place to be in order to get the deepest, most transformational experience of life, we should project that through the part of us that actually gets out of bed in the morning.

That is the gospel according to PeaceBang.

Simply put, I am the self-appointed Stage Mother to all ministers, and I want all my babies to be stars.

If you’re interested in reading my sermons as the Reverend Victoria Weinstein, stop by our church website at www.firstparishnorwell.org. My writing as PeaceBang and my parish ministry with First Parish Unitarian Church in Norwell are distinct and separate from each other, but my congregation and I want to take this rare opportunity to invite you to share our ministry on Boston’s South Shore.

If you’re interested in the exciting, free faith tradition known as Unitarian Universalism, visit our Association’s web site at www.uua.org.

If you’re a publisher with a book deal, why yes, I’m definitely interested.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy Beauty Tips For Ministers, and may God bless your life with beauty, joy, health and peace.

PeaceBang is heading off to bed, grateful to snuggle down after a long day without visions of her big television head to keep her awake and obsessing.

That will apparently happen at some point next week.

I’m so sorry. I’m going to have to say that I won’t even try to give you accurate updates, since even Nancy who wrote and directed the piece doesn’t have control over all of this.

I love you for your excitement and support,
Sorry that we’re all disappointed this evening.
It will be on sometime within the week.
Vicki

It’s very likely that I will be appearing on “Nightline” tonight on ABC, 11:35 EST. I will be hearing from the producer, Nancy Cordes, after the 11:00 meeting today, but I wanted to post this before I leave for the church and get too busy with all that the rest of the day has in store.

I won’t be watching when it airs — I’ll save that for later, when I can be with supportive friends and perhaps a Manhattan — but I hope you’ll let me know how you think I did speaking to the integrity of ministry and the necessity of taking our image seriously.

Ministry is like this: You get your heart, soul, body and mind prepared, you show up and do the best you can to communicate the love of God and the relevancy of religious life, you go home and make some soup and start on another task, and you accept that much of what happens is the work of the Holy Spirit, and not you. You tank, you soar, you really have no way of knowing much of the time — meanwhile, life goes on and you are called to keep showing up for all of it. Of course we care about style and image, all because that shines a light on our ultimate Christian vocation, to clothe ourselves in love. Thank you, Saul of Tarsus.

Tomorrow: a day-long workshop on Prophetic Spirituality at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge. So looking forward to it! Will I see any of you there?

I watched the entire telecast at my friends’ house, on one of those ginormous flat-screen TVs that make you feel as though you are THERE.

I thought that almost all the stars look smashing this year, but I didn’t much enjoy the show. It dragggggged. The Al Gore moment was lovely, and I was so happy for Jennifer Hudson, Forrest Whittaker and Martin Scorcese. I adore Helen Mirren.

It occurred to me watching the Oscars that I just don’t watch television very much at all, and the vast majority of my encounters with pop culture come through the internet or brief interludes with magazines — usually in the line at the grocery store.

So I suffered an anxiety attack right there in M and P’s living room realizing that I am going to be on television — a medium I don’t really have any meaningful connection to!

I believe that this little flurry of attention is related to the mistaken impression people have that we clergy are remote creatures, too busy being super-duper holy to be fully engaged in the world the way “ordinary” people are. You know, I know, and God knows that we’re not superduper holy, we’re not remote, and we’re not disengaged from the real world as lay people know it. Like everyone else, we’re trying to juggle all our responsibilities in life, with the added layer of attending people through the spiritual journey and speaking a word of hope and grace on Sunday mornings. We’re trying to figure out how to communicate through our appearance some of the relevancy and vibrancy we believe is present in the contemporary Church.

How can we do things like connect to pervasive forces like television while still honoring the essential aspect of our calling? Television requires sound bites: ministers don’t think, speak or live in sound bites. Television says, “entertain me!” and ministers don’t entertain, we engage. (I mean, I certainly intend to entertain you as PeaceBang, but you’re not the general public. This conversation is by us, for us, and about us, darlings!).

And yet we must be willing to reach people through popular media. If you had a few moments of time on national television, what message about the vitality of liberal religious life would you want to communicate? I’ve got my talking points ready (hint: it’s not actually fashion we care about so much as better managing our complicated role and image in our churches and in society), but I’d love to hear some of yours.

A wee little camera from “Nightline” will be in the worship service with us this morning, and PeaceBang is feeling almost grimly protective of the religious intent of the day, hoping upon hope that it just feels like No Big Deal to her congregation. The interview comes later in the week, and we are just going to have to Be Brave and bring the message of clergy vibrancy and relevancy to the world.

As much as she is calmly focused on the work of the parish, PeaceBang also understands that she should try to look fresh and alive and “camera-ready” this morning, and so went for a facial and eyebrow waxing earlier this week.

The facial, done with all Eminence Organic products, which smell absolutely edible and which she looooooves, was a delight, in that way that having fire ants march all over your face eating you alive is a delight.
Which is to say that no matter how organic a product may be, darlings, it can still be strong and it can still irritate your skin!! As PeaceBang lay there with her face boiling under some kind of “gentle” alpha hydroxy masque and paprika-based topcoat mildly protesting that her face was scalding, her facialist chortled in an understanding manner and said, “Don’t panic!”

Panic! Why would I panic? There’s nothing more relaxing in the world than having six layers of your skin peeled off your face in the days immediately preceding your first national television appearance! Why, it’s like skipping through a copse of violets on a warm spring day! If that copse of violets is in Hell! Panic? Don’t be sil’!

As for the eyebrow waxing, that was not in the original plan but was a spontaneous recommendation by the aesthetician. PeaceBang can report to you that eyebrow waxing is also the pleasantest of treatments, if you’re the type of person who enjoys the sensation of your skin being ripped off your face. But… courage, mon amis! The pain, she is but fleeting, and the eyebrows are really much more cleanly shaped.

And now for coffee, deep breathing, prayer, preparation of the children’s story, final review of the service, and then …. oh heavens, I’ll have to remember to get dressed, too.

Bring the good news, lovely ones! Shine on! And a blessed Sabbath to you all.

[Update at 1:30: What a nice church day! Sunny, beautiful, happy, full. Elements all good (we could have used one more hymn, but I didn’t realize it in time for the order of service, darnit), sermon as well-crafted as I could manage, and I got through the children’s message coherently, even though I usually clutch at unscripted storytelling. I noticed the camera once or twice, but otherwise forgot about it. I know we’re still in the deep of Lent, but today had that “comin-around-to-spring feeling. Lovely. Church a-buzz with much good programming, upcoming stewardship campaign, usual high spirits. Sorry, just had to say it as my real self! xoxo PB/VW]