Voices of Women of the Cloth
by
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CHAPTER 1
CLERGYWOMEN IN AMERICA
Women have been noticeably absent from pulpits in America.
They teach Sunday school, prepare communion tables, serve on committees and boards, sing in the choir, play handbells and organ, wash the windows, iron the altar cloths, tend the flower beds, make coffee and bake cookies for after-service fellowship, water the plants, staff the nursery, and sweep out the building after everyone else has left.
As paid lay workers or volunteers, women have traditionally served as choir director, church secretary, administrative or financial assistant, leader of Christian education, minister of music, and mistress of the manse. In congregations and parishes women deliver meals to the sick, make hospital visits, hand out groceries at food pantries, organize funeral food and receptions, and serve meals to the homeless. They meet in book, Bible study, sisterhood, altar guild, young mothers’, and caregivers’ groups. When called, they show up, feed, comfort, assist, and support each other.
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About the Book
Although the number of women serving as religious leaders in the United States has long been small, in recent decades that number has increased significantly in some denominations. Even so, their stories often go untold, and their perspectives are regularly left out of broader examinations of clergy.
In Voices of Women of the Cloth, nineteen clergywomen representing eleven different denominations and some nondenominational churches share their stories through interviews. The women range in age from their twenties to their nineties and hold or have held positions including senior or assistant pastor and minister, priest, hospice chaplain, military chaplain, teacher, Roman Catholic sister, and wedding minister. These women display dedication, wisdom, and perseverance in their chosen careers; they offer new and valuable ways of looking at spiritual matters and a unique perspective on an important but often underrepresented segment of the clergy.
This collection of interviews presents the personal narratives of nineteen clergywomen in the United States, sharing how they became members of the cloth.
About the Author
Dr. Claire Cole Curcio is professor emerita at Virginia Tech, a former English and math teacher and school counselor, and a licensed professional counselor in Virginia. She and her partner, Selby McCash, a fellow writer, live in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and Outer Banks, North Carolina, and are active at Trinity Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg.