My dearest dearies,
I am just freshly home from our marvelous event at Louisville Seminary. The cat is howling at me and I am checking e-mail with bleary eyes. Bleary but so happy!
It was absolutely inspiring to be among such wonderful, funny, impressive pigeons for the past two days. About sixty of us — United Methodist, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ and PCUSA lay leaders and Louisville Seminary staff gathered on Monday night and spent that evening plus all of Tuesday together. We talked about image, our various ministry settings, the “besetting sins” of the generations (Boomer Frumpiness and Millennial Cluelessness and Sartorial Oversharing, with Gen Xers erring on one of those sides of the spectrum) and theology. We talked about the historic church’s inability to deal with eros, while having a fairly decent sense of caritas and philios, and great clarity on agape love.
I talked and you tweeted. We laughed a LOT. We got very quiet and sombre when I spoke about the ancestral memory of physical trauma and torture acted out on women’s bodies during the Northern European witch craze of the medieval era, and the same ancestral trauma that African-Americans bear for the physical and soul annihilation of slavery — both genocidal periods of history supported by and even organized by the institutional Church. No wonder we have a troubled relationship with the body in ministry.
We considered my theory that the American mainline Protestant church is still holding onto a 19th century ministerial archetype, and that if we are to attract the unchurched to religious life in community we have to create new, more appealing, relatable, and inspiring archetypes for people to conjure when they hear the word “clergy.” You enthusiastically agreed. Looking around the room I was proud to be in your company: you were vibrant, brilliant, articulate, savvy, and loving. You gave me hope.
I loved your “amens” when I shared my conviction that the g/l/b/t community has borne the brunt of the Church’s sexual repression and body shame. We talked about the fact that the parish minister’s body is regarded in some ways as “public property,” and how to accept that fact while also maintaining one’s privacy and establishing boundaries. We shared a lot of anecdotes about questions, comments and inappropriate touch we have endured as clergy. We talked about clergy sexual misconduct as an acting out of the church’s silence about the body, dysfunctional attitudes about sexuality and the repression and irresponsible use oferos energy, and we learned why short skirts are generally not a good idea for most ministry settings (hint: when we try on clothes we generally don’t see ourselves sitting down in them).
You laughed uproariously when I said that while I love Paul, I take his teachings on women in ministry with a grain of salt since I am not a Paulite but a Christian. We did a LOT of “amen”ing and “preach it!” You told me your stories, and we did some crying together.
I did a mini-consult with several of you right there in front of the group and you ooh’d and ahhh’d just like the audience on “Oprah” when I showed you how clothes can create shape, how make-up can take 10 years off your face and make you look more alive and, as one of you observed, “she looks more happy.” You beheld your new faces in the mirror and did double-takes. “Wow,” you said. You liked what you saw, and so did we. As Elaine tweeted, it was like the feeding of the 5,000 when you opened your bags and shared lipsticks, a blush brush, a wide belt, and hair clips. Even the guys enjoyed themselves and David Henry gave me a FANTASTIC joke that I can use in church.
I will post photos as I get them, so please do send them in. I have more to say about the insights I gained from this time together but that’s a start.
I would love and appreciate it very much if those of you who were there would post a comment about what it meant to you. Think of this as a sort of guest book.
It was Leah Ellison Bradley’s idea to get us all together, and we bow to her awesomeness.
Kiss of peace, PB
