I have been waiting…Waiting for a great story to post on the blog. I guess here it is thus far. I was pulling out of Austin Seminary this morning at around 9:30/10am. I look to the right and then to the left. Until, wait… are those Texan school children with cowboy hats and stick horses between their legs walking down the street.? Sure they are. Lucky for you all I was able to snap a picture. The students crossing the street towards the University of Texas didn’t seem to mind. They were all so cute.

So I have decided to return to my country roots while I am staying here in Texas. While in Middle School I turned to country music when grunge hit the Midwest. I was a huge John Michael Montgomery, Clay Walker, Martina McBride and, let’s face it, Travis Tritt (gotta love the mullet) fan. Over the years I have kept up with the big names in country, not totally abandoning my roots as a country girl. I love to pop in Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts and the adorable Keith Urban. So, here I sit next to a LaQuinta Hotel in Kerrville, barely picking up a free wireless connection so I can post this blog listening to Clint Black.

Today I am meeting Laura, the Mission Service Recruitment intern in San Antonio. She is joining me for the weekend and for church on Sunday at Trinity University. She has recently been to Seattle and then the Pan American School in Kingsville, TX (south of Corpus Christi).

There is not much happening on this World Tour. Hopefully Laura and I can conjure up some good stories I can share with you on Monday. Have a great weekend all!

Peace,
Brianne

Alright I would like to expand to my list of things I like about Texas thus far…
4) Cowboy…boots! It is 80 degrees and there are still people wearing them. I only showed pigs in them one year and my comfort got the best of me. Props to those who still don the cowboy bootage.
5) San Marcos students. I have no idea how they go to class when it is so beautiful and sunny and, well, darn right perfect outside. If I went to TSU I would have a Masters in sun-bathing.

Yes, in case you are wondering, I have found one thing I dislike about Texas. Highway 35! If there was ever a reason not to come to Austin, I35 would be IT. I do not understand how there can be an exit off of the highway but only a loop to get back on every 5 miles. There is a road on each side of I35 which runs parallel and only the same way. I think Texans might be impatient or must live to back-track. Either way I don’t get it. If someone could explain it to me it would be greatly appreciated.

I thought I would elaborate on my experience at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX. What a great group of leaders and college students. I met some great ladies who were interested in starting a Women’s Group! Yea! Just what I love to hear. I loaded her and Mike Miller up with Discussion Resources, brochures and all other kinds of fun stuff.

While I was there one guy came up to me and asked if he could be in NNPCW, and he even wanted a “Jesus Loves Feminists” shirt. I told him we always needed more men to stand with us. The fight for the vote had to be done by women influencing men. I still remember the scene in “Iron Jawed Angels,” where the senator receives a note from his mother. He then changes his vote, and rose color. I thank all the men who stood in solidarity with women over the years. Without their help we would not be where we are today.

Today I looked around Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. I was given a campus tour, met some students, went to chapel, and attended a New Testament class. In the class we had a great conversation about salvation. What it is, how we get it and why we need it. Very intriguing to say the very least were the answers that the students gave. Everything from, “salvation is grace through faith” to “salvation is given so eternal damnation or removal from God does not happen.” Interesting.

Alright off to meet with people at Baylor! Up to Waco I go…

1 Timothy 1:14
The grace of our Lord was poured out on to me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Grace,
Brianne

Quickly I will let you in on a few things I like thus far about Texas…(I am sure I will be adding to this list as we go)
1. People use their turn signals when they drive (big pet-peeve of mine in Louisville) on the highway to change lanes.
2. The weather. Can’t complain about the rain when it is 70 degrees.
3. When I gather with students they tell me where they are from, “I’m so-and-so and I am from Smallville” and everyone else in the room is like, “yeah…I know where that is.” No one ever questions, “is that in Texas?”

So, I began my journey visiting Austin College in Sherman, TX yesterday. I visited with students and joined them for lunch. I had met a few of them previously at Presbyterian Student Strategy Team (PSST, www.pcusa.org/pcc) meetings and at the PEER 1 Event (sponsored by PSST) last summer on the University of Louisville campus.

I was privy to a private “jam session” with John Willams and 2 of his students. I sit here typing this blog wondering, “geeze, what I wouldn’t have given for this in college!” My campus ministry experience in college was anything but “jam-sessions” and Bible Studies filled with being comfortable with kids my own age. I bounced around in college unsure of where I actually “fit.” At the beginning of this internship I was talking to the then, Higher Ed and Campus Ministry Intern and he was asking why I never knew about PSST, NNPCW, or other PCUSA young adult organizations. He asked what I did in high school and if I had always been a Presbyterian. The short of it was, I had always been a Presbyterian and will continue to be what myself and my young adult Presbyterian friends call, “Presby Nerds.” He couldn’t understand. Neither could I.

Sitting-in on the Austin College Bible Study was quite interesting, but not as interesting as the panel discussion which took place afterwards. Now, don’t get me wrong I have been to my fair share of panel discussions in College. This one was different though. Myslef having attended a fairly large secular state school was excited to sit in and listen to a panel discussion about gay rights and homosexual marriage at a small (1300 students) and religiously affiliated school to the PCUSA. There was one professor who seemed very disturbed at the idea of the concept of homosexuality. I sat back and watched how many in the room, not just the GLBT students, squirmed at his tone and what he had to say about gay rights.

As I move on to college campuses more alike to my sweet, Indiana University, I will be interested to learn how the demographics change and where I see God.

Props given to by dearest friend Jennifer and her family in Grand Prairie (look I am doing it. No Texas after it...) for letting me stay and crash the past two nights. Jennifer and I were in Youth Group together back in the day. Now she has a hubby and the most adorable baby boy. Happy Early 1st birthday, Jordan! Alright enough with the shout outs, this isn't TRL.

Gotta get ready. Next stop San Marcos to visit Texas State University for worship and dinner!

Psalms 51: 15
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

I’ll keep you updated,
Brianne

It may be a while until you hear from me again… Brianne has left for Texas on a World Tour, and so she’ll be relating her adventures to you while I take a blogging vacation. However, for those of you who liked watching the Laurie and Essie segments of last week, we’re shooting a new interview today with Eun-hyey Park, Intern for Racial Justice and Advocacy. So I’ll post at least once or twice.

Lots of interesting topics today from my forwarding list… everything from Muslim women leading prayers in mixed company for the first time to the increase in student loan interest rates. That’s right, federal student loan interest rates are going up in July to just under 7%. Sure makes me glad I’ve already finished my undergraduate education—with rising tuition costs combined with rising interest rates, higher education appears on its way to becoming what it once was, the purview of the elite upper classes. Or it just means that you will have to defer middle class dreams, such as home ownership, children, etc, indefinitely.

Of course, if you’re a young woman, you might face a few other roadblocks in your college education. Last week, a New York Times article (yes, I know…) highlighted how many colleges are now giving preference to male applicants over females, simply because there are so many more women at today’s higher education institutions. Apparently, says the Business Roundtable, by 2009-2010 women will earn 142 bachelor’s degrees for every 100 given to men. Moreover, many men and women don’t want to attend a college that is disproportionately female. So colleges are passing over more qualified female applicants to increase the enrollment of male candidates.

Even at my own little Whitworth, such was the case—not only was my dating life rather lackluster due to a shortage of eligible men (a sad anecdote, although not detrimental to my overall educational experience), but I even heard once that the college had sent out special fliers targeting male applicants. I don’t know if it worked.

Yet the kicker is that despite all our wonderful young women who look to be taking over the world (or at least the classroom), the rate of women suffering from eating disorders has doubled since the 1960s. One in five teenage girls, according to a 2001 Harvard study, have reported being hit or forced into sex by their partners. Depression is another problem facing us as young women.

No one really seems equipped to answer why continued and even increased problems with self-esteem and body image have accompanied rising achievement and opportunities for girls and women. One article I read suggested that women were trying to dilute their own strength. And perhaps this is so, but not just because they’re Amazon women trying to keep their raging power in check.

I’m a self-confessed perfectionist, one for whom achievement has always been important. And in my life, I’ve noticed this strange meeting of two contrasting impulses—one to succeed, to be perfect, to make people proud of me, and the other to avoid drawing too much attention to myself. When I got straight "A"s on my report card in school, for instance, I tried not to tell anyone since I understood that this might make them feel bad. In the end, it is still more important for a girl to be nice than to be smart, to avoid stirring people up too much or threatening their own egos too directly.

And you know what? The problem hasn’t gone away for me. I got into Harvard Divinity School the other day, as well as Boston University’s School of Theology. I was one of the first in my family to graduate from college, and I’ll be the first in my family to get a graduate degree. But right now I am debating in my head whether to delete the above declaration, because I’m afraid that I'll come off as bragging about it (and I did, in fact, delete some of what I originally wrote).

Maybe we young women really are trying to dilute our own strength, in a culture that constantly calls us both to perfectly perform while staying in the background. And perhaps this is just the point where we can reclaim the countercultural messages of the Gospel—the Gospel that proclaims God’s love for us regardless of how imperfect or perfect we are, the Gospel that reminds us of our unconditional acceptance into the family of God, the Gospel that invites us to inclusivity rather than exclusivity. And it is in this Gospel that we can accept ourselves, both in the abundant talents God has blessed us with and in the frail brokenness that the Holy One redeems.

So today, know that your value lies not in what your parents and friends say about you, not in what your partner says about you, not in what the media or government or Jerry Falwell says about you. Your value lies in the fact that you were created in the image of a loving, mothering God, a God that still sees that image within you and loves you for it.

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” --Romans 8:38-39

Kelsey

I've been at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary's "Wind and Flame" event all day, an event to commemorate the ordination of women in the Presbyterian Church (USA). But what's on my mind right now is not the event theme itself, but one workshop I attended dealing with faith and money matters. Dr. Dianne Reisteroffer's workshop on "Faith and Money: Finding Your Vision and Values" challenged me not only to think more about funding for NNPCW (don't forget that you can still give to the scholarship fund from our website!!), but even my own personal finances.

Reisteroffer avoided the two primary messages we're being sent about money these days-- the so-called "prosperity gospel" that teaches us that God wills us to be filthy rich, and the message I think many of us also learn that money itself is evil. Rather, she told us what the Presbyterian Church (USA)'s constitution (aka the Book of Order and the Book of Confessions) actually have to say about the subject. What do we as a church believe about money, anyway?

Unfortunately, I didn't write down the direct citations. However, somewhere in the Book of Order it says that Presbyterians are supposed to practice "faithful stewardship that shuns ostentation and seeks faithful use of God's gifts." So in other words, Presbyterians are not supposed to show off the bling-bling, and instead use money to further the work of God. One of the confessions in the Book of Confessions (the book that says what we theologically stand for as a church) states that we work for the good of our neighbor, and do our work well so that we can help the poor in need. Another, interestingly, says that we are supposed to further the wealth of ourselves AND others. Our presenter summed it up by saying that Reformed values on money are that we procure wealth, lead a lifestyle of frugality, cultivate generosity of spirit in our lives, and translate that into generous giving.

A couple of thoughts about all this. First, you can tell that this theology comes from a position of privilege. It is pretty easy for Presbyterians, a denomination made up historically of some of this nation's wealthiest people, to say that procuring wealth is good. It can serve as a salve on the conscience of those Presbyterians with access to great wealth. What I think we hear less of but should emphasize more about Reformed theology regarding money, though, is the concept of living frugally and giving generously.

We live in a world where Americans consume a disproportionate amount of the world's resources. So many live ostentatiously, and our culture lionizes the worst offenders-- think of movie stars and basketball players, for instance. But our beliefs call us to take only what we need, and no more. If we happen to be in the camp that makes more than what we need, we're not necessarily supposed to feel guilt about that-- we're supposed to use the excess to further the work of God in the world.

Our use of money reflects our values and priorities, in ways far more honest than our rhetoric ever could be. What do you spend your money on? Is it going to the things you say you value?

One suggestion I picked up from the workshop-- when you set your budget, whether that is a personal budget or an organizational budget, you should first ask what your top values and priorities are. So many times we approach money management by looking at what we've got in the bottom line, and then shaping what we can do based on that. Instead, we should prioritize what we value and then allocate the money we do have toward that.

For instance, if you want to start tithing ten percent to your church, or giving regularly to your favorite social justice cause, maybe you should set that aside as one of the first things out of your paycheck rather than the last. Because although you may say you value those things more than the Banana Republic shopping spree, your household budget doesn't lie.

I should add one more thing, though-- putting food on the table is definitely a legitimate "top five values" in my book!

So now that you all hate me for talking about money, I guess I'll just go crawl in a hole somewhere :). But just think a bit about it. What do you value?

"Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.'" --Mark 12:43-44

Kelsey

After surmounting the technical difficulties of the firewall, here is the promised outtakes clip. Enjoy!!

Kelsey

Oh, the agony!!! The pain! The accursed betrayal of Gonzaga!!! Yup, that’s right, folks, I’ve cast my lot into March Madness NCAA basketball. I did a great job predicting the DC/Minneapolis side of my bracket—thus far, only four of my picks have been wrong. But the Atlanta/Oakland side has been my undoing.

I have to reserve the hottest heaps of criticism for my tournament darling, the Gonzaga Bulldogs. I confess right now that I am a total dupe for the men of my home state. In high school, every single August, I thought to myself, “Maybe this year I’ll finally have a boyfriend.” And those Washington men always let me down. Same thing with college. And now that I’ve found myself a life partner (in Kentucky) and all I ask of Washington men is that they WIN a major sporting event once in a while, they can’t seem to manage this one simple task.

The Mariners had the best record in baseball a few years back—slaughtered in the first round of the playoffs (and now they’re in the AL West cellar). The Seahawks make it to the Super Bowl this year, and I think, “A Seattle team might actually win a championship???” And then they don’t. And now, when I put it all on the line for the Gonzaga Bulldogs, staking my competition with David AND my office pool on them taking the national title, they choke???? When I went to bed last night, they were up by 10 in the second half!! And I wake up this morning to find out that they lost by two??

Even worse, they have to lose to my Grandpa Rice’s beloved UCLA Bruins, a team I’ve mocked since childhood. This just adds insult to my injury.

Of course, the Washington Huskies (who let me down against the Louisville Cardinals in last year’s tournament, by the way), are up against Connecticut tonight. And all I ask of them is that they lose, since that’s what I predicted in my bracket. But because they’re Washington men, I’m sure they’ll win just to spite me.

Now THAT, my friends, was mean-spirited : ).

As I read over all the things I just said, by the way, I realized that many of you probably don’t have any clue about how the NCAA tournament works. So I will give you a brief synopsis, so that no one can make you feel stupid when it comes to talking about March Madness.

Basically, what we call “March Madness” is the national championship tournament in college basketball. There is both a men’s and a women’s tournament, although even I am guilty of paying more attention to the men. Sixty-four teams enter the tournament, playing in six rounds of single-elimination (meaning that if you lose a game, you’re out) over three weekends.

A little glossary of terms… the “Sweet Sixteen” are the sixteen teams left in the tournament after the second round, and the “Elite Eight” are the eight teams left after the third round. And of course, the “Final Four” are the champions of the four regions, the ones left after playing the fourth round. Making it to the Final Four means you’re one of the best teams in the country, and is an honor highly coveted by all. Of course, the winners of the Final Four games play for the national title.

Even lukewarm fans of college basketball, like me, derive great pleasure in filling out “brackets”—basically predicting who will win what games, and competing with others to see who can predict most accurately. Points in your brackets are awarded if your team wins, ranging from one point per team for a first round win to six points for the championship game. Of course, I can’t get those six points, because I said GONZAGA would win the national championship. No, no, I’m not bitter… but I’ll probably be duped again next year.

Sorry about my rage-filled sports rant… enjoy today’s outtakes from our Laurie and Essie interview!

“And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.” --Luke 17:4

Kelsey

I had to laugh yesterday afternoon when I opened up my copy of Presbyterians Today… apparently I have been labeled “mean-spirited” for my “hyperbole” about Martha Stewart published in the January/February issue (click here to read the blog post that inspired that article, and here to read the letters about it). If it will make faithful PT readers feel any better, it was Martha Stewart Weddings that inspired the cute little sugar cookie wedding cakes I’m giving out as party favors on the big day. And speaking of mean-spirited, you should have seen Martha take Jason Biggs of American Pie fame down a notch on her talk show a few weeks ago….

Speaking of weddings, I’ve been reading a fascinating article on arranged marriages in India. It comes from the “Imagining Ourselves” project of the International Museum of Women. The young, feminist writer discusses how she met her own husband through the traditional arrangement channels in India, which include parents who scour the “Matrimonial” section of the newspaper and set up meetings with prospective mates and in-laws to display their daughters. The topic has provoked over ten pages of comments, and several other Indian women have shared their stories of either “love” matches or arranged marriages.

This brings to mind other articles I’ve read in the past week or so. The Christian Century, for instance, recently published an article about the “death of marriage” in this country, and how marriage’s transformation from a kinship alliance and property transfer to a love match has in some ways tolled a death knell for it as an enduring social institution.

I've pondered all of this a lot, as I teeter on the brink of taking the plunge myself into what I intend to be a lifelong commitment. In the Christian tradition, the joining of two lives is seen as a covenantal act—one that, like everything else we do, should point to the glory of God and help us live as better disciples of Christ. If you look at it this way, our search for a mate is more about our relationship to God than about us.

Maybe part of the problem with modern-day marriage is that we individualistically rely too much on our own warm feelings toward another person to sustain a relationship. Genuine relationship doesn’t come without problems. Look at my relationship with my mother—frankly, the woman drives me crazy half the time (sorry, Mom). You should have been there the day I told her I was going to Thailand last year! Of course, I wasn’t the best person in the world last Christmas, when I spent three days storming around the house before she finally took me out on the back porch and chewed me out. There are times when I wonder why we put ourselves through this stuff.

But then today, I was listening on the radio to the story of a girl whose mother had multiple sclerosis. Her fifteen-year-old daughter was her caretaker, giving her injections daily and calling 911 when her mom had seizures. As I listened, I knew that my mom would be right by my side to care for me if I were ever in a similar predicament. She would help me, and I would help her.

And maybe that’s how our deep, genuine relationships point us to God—the covenant we have with those we “love,” in the active-verb, “sometimes I just have to put up with you” sense, is the covenant God has with us. We are a broken and flawed world comprised of broken and flawed people, and yet God just refuses to give up; God may take us out on the back porch and chew us out once in a while, but the Holy One will be present when we’re in need. And in our covenants with others, whether spouses, parents, siblings, or fellow members of the body of Christ, we’re called to that same sort of love.

So maybe our search for a compatible partner has less to do with how we meet, common interests, or political stances, and more to do with how committed we are to living out Christ’s command to love one another as God loves us. That will sustain a relationship, even when I can’t stand David stinking up the bathroom anymore.

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another.” --John 13:34

Kelsey

I got a flier in the mail today… perhaps I noticed it more because the post office had ripped the back cover in half, and had thus sent it to me in a special envelope with their apologies. The group was Student Life, and they’ve apparently put a new twist on your traditional church camp in the woods—now you can have your Jesus while lounging on the beach in Florida.

That’s right, “Student Life @ the Beach 2006” will provide your church youth group with a unique experience of worship, spiritual renewal, and relationship building, all at favorite coastal resorts like Daytona Beach, FL and Myrtle Beach, SC. The brochure features young and hip looking (and all male) camp pastors, along with the requisite worship leaders whose hairstyling talents that rival their musical abilities. Now, the fact that there were only two female leaders in the entire brochure didn’t really go over all that well with me, so I guess I’m biased toward the whole project to begin with. Sorry.

But you know, the predominately male leadership of this whole brochure wasn’t really what tickled my brain in the first place, nor what ultimately caused me to blog about it. What bugged me was the way in which the brochure promoted the event. On the very last page, the brochure explains that this is an experience of worship and “sound Biblical teaching” that takes place in relaxing beach settings. Fair enough. But when I flipped open the FIRST page of the brochure, you know what I saw, front and center?

“The New EMERALD COAST conference center hosts worship and sits less than one mile from beachfront condo units. The Silver Sands Outlet Mall (3rd largest in the US) and Destin Commons outline the largest tourist and shopping opportunity. Groups may putt-putt, rent water equipment, go-carts, parasail, bungee jump and much more in Destin.”

Now where was Jesus in all of that? Am I attending a Christian conference, or looking to buy oceanfront vacation property?

If we’re going to take kids to worship God and learn sound Biblical teaching, maybe we should be taking them to some of the places where we would have found Jesus if he were here today in the flesh—places like the border between the United States and Mexico, places like the rape crisis centers in our cities, places like the our dying rural communities. As much as I’m sure he had fun at times, I don’t think Jesus and the disciples held court at the Capernaum Hilton. Jesus didn’t seek to escape the ugly side of the world—in fact, he gave up his privilege as a male Jew to reach out to all people. Are we doing the same?

Even our plain old church camps in the woods, with their rustic metal bunks and communal showers, point us to something beyond the creature comforts and entertainments to which middle class Americans have become all too accustomed. They remind us that life is indeed more than food, and the body more than clothing (Matthew 6:25). And when I was a kid, a hike in the woods or a low-tech ropes course was just as much fun as go-carts and bungee jumping anyway.

The setting in which we worship God is in many ways immaterial. What matters is where we’re focused when we worship, when we study, when we come together as a faith community. It is certainly nice to have a little entertainment on the side. But when the sideshow is promoted as the main event, what are we teaching our kids and ourselves about God?

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Parent knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the realm of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” --Matthew 6:31-33

Kelsey

I have to confess that I’m absolutely fried today after a high-energy weekend of wedding planning. I’ve taken to referring to it as my second job—my days spent as a cog in the wheel that is PresbyLand, my nights and weekends taken by such tasks as discussing which florist to hire and tying 140 little ribbons into knots. Who knew printing on vellum paper could be so hard? Why the heck won’t our baker return my phone call??

But on my way home last night from David’s parents, the song “Unbelievable” came on the radio. You remember it? It is probably an early 1990s song, although I don’t know the artist. I think Major League Baseball used it in a commercial for several years.

Perhaps that’s why I always think of Ken Griffey, Jr. when I hear it. Griffey was the beloved center fielder of the Seattle Mariners in the 1990s, before he defected to the Cincinnati Reds, in, say, 1998? That was when Seattle had some of the premier players in the American League—that Yankee sellout Alex Rodriguez was a number one draft pick for the M’s back then, Griffey was captaining the ship, and of course, Randy Johnson was freaking batters out with “Mr. Snappy.” So when I heard “Unbelievable” on the radio last night, it took me back to days when the height of happiness was a trip to the “Concrete Monstrosity,” the Kingdome, when the first sign of spring was after-school softball practice.

Songs mark epochs in our lives, really, record the mood of the times. Why do you think the Forrest Gump soundtrack was so popular with our parents’ generation? I don’t know what people will say about our times, looking at some of the junk played on the radio today (perhaps we just don’t hear the junk from the 1960s and 1970s—maybe it has been relegated to some back closet, only to be drug out on Christmas Day… wait, that’s Christmas pop music). But I know that I always think of my freshman year of high school when I hear Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979,” eating an entire box of Cheese-Its with Kendroid as the band bus drove over to Seattle for the state basketball tournament. Or of Casey and I trekking over the Rocky Mountains and across the Great Plains in the ‘Stang when I hear Jason Mraz. And although David will hate this, I think of the heady first days of our acquaintance when I hear Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love.”

As for NNPCW, I’m not sure what song will trigger memories of you all—it isn’t like “Humna” is a huge radio hit. But one day in church, singing “Be Thou My Vision” or the like, I think I’ll send a warm fuzzy thought your way.

“For every matter has its time and way, although the troubles of mortals lie heavy upon them.” --Ecclesiastes 8:6

Kelsey

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!! You should all already be well-versed in this famous Irish drinking and carousing holiday, since I blogged about its history last year. But I did discover recently in an in-flight magazine that there is only one other nation outside of Ireland that has declared St. Patrick’s Day a national holiday… any guesses?

The island of Montserrat, in the Caribbean, which used to be a haven for 17th century Irish Catholics after they finished indentured servitude in the British West Indies. The little nation celebrates for an entire week, with feasts, parades, and outdoor theater productions that commemorate a slave uprising on this date in 1768. So if you want a sunnier alternative to Ireland in your St. Patrick’s Day festivities, Montserrat may be the place for you.

No, today I’m going to talk about yet another New York Times article (I can’t tell if they’re really that good, or if they’re just the only thing all my friends read and pass on). It says that the number of students attending Protestant seminaries and divinity schools in this country is on the rise, even as the numbers of mainline Protestants themselves are shrinking. What it points out, too, is that increasing numbers of women and men seeking Master of Divinity degrees are not at all interested in being ordained to serve in parish ministry. Apparently only half of all MDiv students today plan on entering the parish after completing their degrees. This number has decreased by 10 to 15 percentage points in the last five years alone.

As a person planning on pursing theological education but passing up ordination myself, this article did affirm my own decision. Students were speaking about the same things I am—wanting to pursue meaningful work in the work, bringing the morals and ethics of our faith life into all segments of the society, but not feeling called to do that as a clergyperson.

Yet the article never attempted to address a pragmatic, less cited reason that many young people may not be interested in serving as clergy—hard work, high expectations, and low pay.

In our Presbyterian tradition, let’s look at what we’re asking of a young person interested in Ministry of Word and Sacrament. First, we require that you be very well-educated—those without an MDiv need not apply. So we require you to go off to pursue a three-year professional degree, akin to law school or journalism school. Now, if you’re like most people in these days of rising tuition costs and shrinking federal funding, you’re probably coming out of your undergrad with significant debt. And even if your church and presbytery are financially supporting you through grad school, you’re probably going to rack up more debt somewhere in those three years.

Now you’re searching for a congregation. The churches you’re most likely to get a call from, particularly if you’re a young woman and/or person of color, will be small and rural or small and inner city. Nothing against small churches—they need the love of God just as much as anyone else. When you’re staring down $30,000+ of educational debt, though, and your church is only offering you $25,000 per year for your graduate level education… are you starting to see why being a parish minister becomes less and less appealing?

Granted, ministers are like teachers—they don’t do it for the money. But like parents expect the world out of teachers, we laypeople expect a lot from our pastors. They’re never tired, always available, all-knowing and wise. We want them at every church potluck, every Presbyterian Women’s fundraiser, every youth group mission trip. If they look at us cross-eyed in the grocery store, we leave the church.

Oh, and did I mention that, if you’re a woman, your ministry will be peppered with comments like these?: “Well, Pastor Suzy does pretty well for a woman,” “We were a little nervous about calling a woman pastor,” “Oh, gosh, Rev. Julie is going to preach today… I just prefer hearing men preach—their style is so much stronger and more direct.”

Have I painted enough of a picture for you?

Small churches in particular don’t have the resources to pay for a student’s seminary education, and there are scholarships out there to help people along as they go through grad school. But a start would be for our denominations to begin addressing the overall debt load, undergraduate and graduate, of students coming out of seminary, and offer denominational debt forgiveness for women and men serving small congregations. The government does the same thing to recruit teachers, and it helps. We’ve got good people coming through school who want to do something meaningful with their lives. Let’s stop losing them to jobs that actually compensate them for their level of education, or stop requiring so much education.

As for the congregations themselves, there are no easy answers to that one. But as fewer young adults take the path to ordination, one thing is for sure—we will have to start seeing clergy not as one-way lines to God, but as real people with real needs.

“Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching, for the scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and ‘The laborer deserves to be paid.’” --1 Timothy 5:17-18

Kelsey

David and I are in the midst of an ongoing dialogue about the separation of church and state in this country, one that seems to pop up again every time one of us hears a story that we think relates to it. And yesterday, a National Public Radio piece about immigration reform prompted a new round of discussion.

The story in question was a commentary I heard regarding Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Cardinal Mahony and other religious leaders are incensed about legislation moving through Congress right now that could criminalize religious workers providing services to undocumented immigrants. Cardinal Mahony, seeing this as a direct violation of the Biblical mandate to “love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (from Leviticus 19:34) and other injunctions to provide charity to the outsiders in our midst, has publicly announced that he will order his priests to defy any such federal legislation. Protestants, Catholics, Hispanic evangelicals, and interfaith partners are also lashing out at the legislation, feeling that it would infringe on religious rights.

Lawmakers have fought back, saying the legislation is not targeting churches and that any American should be punished for actively helping smuggle immigrants into the country illegally. Of course, the law is extensively broadening what that means. And a Presbyterian-related group has already run afoul of the law on this issue—two young adults working with PC(USA) Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase’s No More Deaths are currently awaiting trial for trying to help undocumented immigrants seek medical attention after finding them sick in the desert.

This particular case reveals the complexity behind the church-state relationship, and perhaps the false dichotomies we set up when we talk about “separation.” Because unlike the ruckus in Ohio (see Kelsey Busts Out Her Bible), where many of us agree that religious leaders shouldn’t be endorsing specific candidates, these churches aren’t attacking particular public officials. Rather, they are reflecting the current social climate, in which religious groups of all theological and political stripes are becoming increasingly bold in attempting to shape the political direction of the nation.

Now, David argues that as a matter of conscience, individual Christians can and should bring their faith to bear on the political process. He draws the line, however, when church bodies—like the entire Archdiocese of Los Angeles, or the entire Presbyterian Church (USA)—take a stand against the government on a political issue. Whenever I say that I’ve heard about clergy protesting something, his litmus test is whether those clergy were protesting as individuals or as representatives of the entire church. Groups of Christians who get together and form organizations like, say, Focus on the Family are also all right, since they’re not a “church” as such. But the formal church bodies? Not okay, unless the state is trying to force the church to do something inconsistent with church teachings. Then resistance is necessary.

The mantra of second wave feminism was that “the personal is political,” though. And what I tell David is that in a complex society of so many interlocking layers, we simply can’t help it when our faith lives and institutions bleed into the public arena. Of course, I also look at the Bible through a prophetic perspective, in which folks like Elijah and Jeremiah and Jesus are speaking truth to rulers and authorities all the time. As David would say, these were individuals speaking based on their own faith. I then remind him that the early Christian church defied the government, too. He shoots back that the state was trying to dictate belief to the church.

And how does the church taking potentially divisive social stands play into its very nature as the multicultural, multifaceted body of Christ? We Presbyterians struggle with this all the time, as we seek the will of God and come to very different conclusions. Even in the case cited above, one article said that people in the pews of the Archdiocese are split 50-50 on immigration reform. With such division, what does it really mean when a church body takes a stand, anyway?

Perhaps the whole issue of church-state separation really hinges on this single question—what is a church? Is it the formal tax-exempt charity that the IRS defines it as? Is it a group of religious people getting together around a common issue, like immigration reform? Or is it anywhere in which the Holy Spirit is present? If “church” is the former, then we can pretty clearly define where and how it should interact with the state. But if we accept the latter definitions, then we get into what David likes to call “a gray area” when he’s not sure how to answer.

There’s one point, though, on which David and I agree. Our social protest and action as Christian women and men should look toward the life and ministry of Jesus Christ—the man who told us to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, while paying the ultimate price for defying the ruling powers and laws of his day.

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” --Matthew 18:20

Kelsey

David called me up this morning wanting to know about the Ides of March. Most of us know it best from reading Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in high school… “Beware the Ides of March!” And for those of you who took Advanced Calculus instead and have no clue what I’m talking about, on this date in 44 BCE, dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by enemies in the Roman Senate, an event later immortalized in Shakespeare’s play.

I kind of have a penchant for Shakespearian death scenes… in high school, I got to croak out in a Marlon Brando Godfather voice, “Et tu, Brute?” as a stabbed Caesar. But my best performance was in college when I played a poisoned Queen Gertrude in Hamlet. My prof said he’d never seen anyone launch herself sideways off that chair and smack the floor with that much vigor.

In other news, David also wanted to know more about Purim, which our Jewish friends celebrated yesterday. So I’ll do my best to cover both topics without launching into a soliloquy of my own on the sins of ancient and modern empires.

Now, if you’re like me, you want to know what the heck the Ides of March are. Well apparently, there is nothing at all dark about the Ides of March—it is simply the Roman way of saying March 15. Any of you who know Roman numerals know how confusing they can be, and the actual day counting functions on the same premise. The only days named in the Roman calendar are Kalends, the first day of the month; Nones, either the 5th or 7th day, depending on the month; and Ides, the 13th or 15th day. All the other days are referenced to those using a numeral in front of them. So Romans would talk about March 3 as V Nones, or yesterday as I Ides. Thank goodness we switched to the Arabic system.

But I guess it doesn’t sound nearly as spooky for the soothsayer to say to Caesar, “Beware March 15.”

As for Purim, celebrated yesterday, the feast commemorates an event you should actually be quite familiar with—the festival celebrates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the Book of Esther. The name comes from the Hebrew “pur,” or “lots,” referring to the lots that Haman cast to determine the day in which Jews in the Persian Empire would be executed. I will avoid recapping the story (you can look it up), except to say that it features a courageous heroine who risked her own life to follow God’s call and save her people from destruction.

Purim is sometimes called the Jewish Mardi Gras. The Book of Esther is read in synagogue, accompanied by boos and hisses whenever Haman’s name is mentioned. Communities hold carnivals and parades featuring people dressed as Esther and other protagonists in the story. The Talmud even directs people to drink so much that they can’t tell the difference between “cursed be Haman” and “blessed be Mordecai!” But Jews also commemorate the day with gifts of food and drink to neighbors, and charitable contributions.

The holiday is marked with great joy and celebration because it represents the Jewish community’s ability to survive persecution and persevere in exile through the centuries. From a feminist perspective, it is also one of the few important religious holidays that commemorates a woman as a key protagonist in the life of the faith. And since we Christians share a bit of that heritage, it is a time for us to rejoice in God’s abundant goodness as well.

So celebrate your Ides of March with a little belated Purim merriment! And mark your calendars for IV Nones to hit Purim next year!!

“Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the open towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, a holiday on which they send gifts of food to one another.” --Esther 9:19

Kelsey

One of the perks of being employed by PresbyLand is the plethora of free publications that come our way. For someone like me, who loves above all free stuff, my yearly copy of the Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study and my subscription to Presbyterians Today are of great value. And of course, our friends over in Presbyterian Women Communications make sure that we get every issue of Horizons and its Bible Study. So today, I was excited to see In The Beginning: Perspectives on Genesis had reached my otherwise empty mailbox.

If there is one thing you should know about Presbyterian Women, it is that they produce kick-butt Bible studies. In fact, these Bible studies are the number one selling resource of the denomination, they’re so good. Now, don’t think they’re only about women, though—this year is all about Genesis, while last year covered the liturgical calendar. Other Bible studies have focused on Esther and Ephesians. The insights contained within these resources are great regardless of your gender.

Yet gender is at the heart of every PW Bible Study, mainstreaming women’s concerns and drawing all of us to female role models and examples in Scripture. Take, for instance, the newest study. Several lessons cover the traditional highlights of Genesis—Cain and Abel, Abraham and the covenant, and the Joseph story. But equally represented are the stories of matriarchs like Hagar, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel, and Tamar. They are lifted up as examples to us all, both for their faults and for their faithfulness. After spending an entire life in churches where the male experience is represented as the norm, it is kind of nice to hear a lesson on Tamar.

Have you ever thought about that, how often the male experience is seen as normal in our church? An example—think about what you remember as the top Bible stories you learned as a child. Maybe your list looks like mine:

• David and Goliath
• Noah and the Ark
• The Joseph story
• The Good Samaritan parable
• Moses and the Seven Plagues on Egypt

And of course, the Resurrection story of Christ. Now, tell me how many of those stories have women as protagonists:

• David and Goliath—Nope, but I think David got to marry one of Saul’s daughters as a prize afterward.
• Noah and the Ark—Well, Noah and his sons had some wives, and they brought female animals into the ark…
• The Joseph story—Okay, Potiphar’s wife is certainly NOT a protagonist in this story.
• The Good Samaritan parable—Nada
• Moses and the Seven Plagues—Miriam was pretty cool, and played a protagonist role when Moses was a baby, but you don’t hear much about her when Moses and Aaron are taking on Pharaoh.

Ten points for Jesus, though… Mary Magdalene is a key player in the Resurrection, even though people don’t seem to know it when I ask about that on the World Tour.

All the stories I listed above are awesome ones, stories that inspire us and give us faith through the tough times. But are men the only people in the Bible who are inspiring? Are they the only ones who act with courage in the face of adversity, faith during difficult times? Why are they the primary examples we see of the faith characteristics we want to emulate?

For instance, what about Rebekah? It took some immense faith to leave everything you’d ever known to head off with this random guy you met at a well, only to marry a man you’d never met. Or Tamar, to stand up and demand that your father-in-law treat you justly when he was trying to rip you off. How about Miriam, Deborah, Esther? Lots of women play key roles in the New Testament, too, even beyond the Virgin Mary.

And if you think men can’t learn about God from studying women’s childbirth issues, well, I’ve never fought in a war, but I can take lessons from warrior-king David. I live in a 21st century urban area and have never tended a flock of sheep, but I still read about the shepherds at Jesus’ birth.

So if you’re looking for a resource to use in your campus Bible study, one that both men and women can appreciate, let me highly recommend to you the Presbyterian Women Bible study. Perhaps then you can add some women to that list of best-known Bible stories.

“Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” --Mark 14:9

Kelsey

I decided to wait until this afternoon to blog because I simply couldn’t find any inspiring topic to explicate on. Even David and my co-worker Heather, endless sources of intriguing articles on every social issue under the sun, failed me today. In the meantime I’ve literally spent all day on the phone, calling campus ministers and recruiting for the Leadership Event.

Today’s only noteworthy occasion? The cheap $1 nylons I picked up in Philadelphia developed a mammoth run, one that no strategic positioning of my skirt or shoes will hide. I would take my nylons off, except that Louisville has become the site of “Noah’s Ark: The Sequel,” and I don’t want to brave the rain in bare legs and make my shoes stinky (although my nylons are so terribly cheap that they probably wouldn’t make a difference on either count). Indeed, if it doesn’t stop raining and thundering soon, we’re going to have to start pulling local livestock into the Center two by two.

But I did have the opportunity to chat with one of my mentors at Whitworth about grad school this afternoon. Of course, I technically didn’t call her to talk about grad school… my stated purpose in calling was to plug the Leadership Event at Whitworth. No call like that stays strictly on the subject of work, however.

As many of you know, I have applied to both Harvard Divinity School and Boston University’s School of Theology for next fall. Assuming I’m accepted to both programs, I will soon need to decide which school to attend (a position that perhaps several of you graduating seniors are in right now as well). Pam, in her infinite wisdom that always spawns more good questions than concrete answers, gave me several things to think about as I sort out my decision.

She first encouraged me to look at this decision in terms of the big picture, and see how each school would align with my goals. What do I want to do with my life? What do I hope will happen in five or ten years? And what kind of process do I want to go through in grad school to get there? Journaling always helps, if you really want to clearly explore these sorts of larger goals.

Pam also remarked that one major element in any grad school decision is simply gut feeling—where are you going to be successful? Where do you feel like you’ll fit? Her words reminded me of a spiritual discernment technique Mary Elva, my boss, teaches in her Leadership Event workshop. When you’re making a decision, picture yourself doing first one thing, and then the other. Live into each decision. Then stop and note how you felt when you made the decision. In my case, for instance, I would first imagine that I had decided to go to Harvard. Can I picture myself there? What would my life be like? How does this decision make me feel? After noting that, through journaling or just meditating, I would turn around and do the same thing with Boston University. How does that make me feel?

Of course, for all of you who aren’t the warm fuzzy “explore my feelings” types, there are also some critical questions you can ask yourself when looking at grad school. What is the program like, and does it equip me to pursue my career goals? Are the faculty exploring projects that I’m interested in (and could I help them)? What kind of community does the school have, and how will that community enhance or detract from my career goals? What kinds of resources, both in terms of time and money, is the school willing to invest in me?

One thing I've found helpful in my decision is to talk with both faculty and students I know who attend both the schools I'm considering. I've met some wonderful folks at both Harvard and BU, people who aren't so tied to their school that they won't give me a fair assessment of the good, the bad, and the ugly at their school. You can learn a lot from talking to students and faculty that you won't hear in the admissions tour.

And like any decision, a large element of this choice involves simply listening for the still, small voice guiding you down the path. God is present with you in whatever choice you make, whether good or bad. In times of transition, you can always cling to that.

“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” --Matthew 28:20b

Kelsey

More NNPCW news for you today, hot off the press… this is why you should read the blog frequently. As of today, the NNPCW Scholarship application is available online!! The Scholarship Committee has been hard at work designing it, while the Fundraising Committee has already raised $5249 for it. And now you can apply!

The NNPCW Scholarship is open to any college woman age 18-25 who is in her second year or above of undergraduate studies at an accredited college or university in the United States. One must also be a US citizen or permanent resident (our new immigrant scholarship, which will be available in future years, does not have this particular requirement). In addition, students must to be able to demonstrate financial need and activity in a Christian faith community (whether that is your campus ministry, home congregation, women’s group, whatever). Membership in NNPCW right now isn’t required, but if you did get the scholarship we’d kind of expect you to get more involved!

One non-renewable scholarship for $1000 will be awarded per year, basically until the money runs out.

I’ve mentioned in past blogs that the Scholarship Committee is primarily comprised of young women like you—students and alumnae of NNPCW—who know what it is like to search for scholarships and want to make this as easy as possible. This process was also designed to eliminate some of the dichotomies that come when you have people with resources giving to those without resources. Rather than just older, rich people giving you money, your funding is coming from other college students, alumnae, and friends who are a lot like you—women who have been touched by the ministry of NNPCW and who want others to be helped by it as well. It is a joint ministry initiative that everyone can participate in.

So how do you apply? All you need to do is download the application forms off our website, fill them out, get a transcript, ask a leader in your faith community and one other person to be a reference, and wax eloquent on a couple of topics about faith and women. Then you get all the pieces, put them together in one envelope, and get them into my hot little hands by April 10. Yes, that means RECEIVED by April 10. A hint, by the way—you want to impress us, and late applications poor handwriting, missing pieces… not impressive.

And sorry, but if you’re a CoCo member, we decided at the last meeting that you’re not eligible to receive a scholarship. That’s what you get when God pays for you to go to Louisville twice a year!

One last note to all of you who have donated to this scholarship fund, too—I have constantly been amazed by your generosity in supporting this project. From grad students who dig up enough money after paying rent to send us a check, to amazingly generous Presbyterian Women, to even the women who started this ministry back in 1992, you’ve all added to the contributions you’ve made to NNPCW in the past with your time, talents, and advocacy. With all sincerity, thank you.

Now, go apply for that scholarship! And sign up for NNPCW while you’re at it!

“O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good; for God’s steadfast love endures forever.” --1 Chronicles 16:34

Kelsey

For all those of you who have been eagerly anticipating the appearance of the vlog, you’re going to have to wait. Although Brianne and I did shoot the first installment of our new, yet-to-be-titled vlog this morning with our friends from the church’s volunteer offices, Essie Buxton and Laurie Armstrong, it is definitely far from being ready for mass consumption. We actually screened the footage in front of a test audience this morning, and got some feedback we need to work on before you all get to see it. Otherwise, you’ll pretty much think we’re idiots.

Part of the concern I have with the whole vlogging initiative, I guess, is the hype that is already beginning to surround it. Although there may only be three of you out there who actually read Network Notes on a regular basis, within the walls of 100 Witherspoon it is perceived as a success—particularly in a church that right now is aching to be relevant to the lives of young adults. As far as I know, we’re only the second official blog of the Presbyterian Church (USA) out there, Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase’s being the first. And I think we’re the only Presbyterian denominational blog that commits to updating almost daily.

A vlog, though… that’s something that no one in the building has attempted at this point. That’s part of the appeal for me—the idea that we’re blazing a trail on technology that is just starting to emerge in the broader culture. And of course, that’s also been the appeal to all my supervisors in PresbyLand who have heard of it, too, and want to shout what we’re doing to the world.

So in this building, it feels like a certain aura has settled around the vlogging thing, akin to the pilot of a new sitcom. Everyone has heard the concept and loves it, but no one has actually seen the episode. And we all know what happens with something you’re highly anticipating without ever having seen it.

Network Notes had a bit of time to develop before it really became known on a larger scale. As the primary writer for this blog, I was able to settle into my stride and develop some compelling stuff before anyone really knew we existed. It didn’t hurt, either, that I was an English major in college. I don’t think we’ll have that breathing room with this vlog.

I guess I’m asking you to go easy on us the first few times around. It won’t be perfect—Brianne and I are not broadcast journalists, editors, or anything else special. Basically, we’re just two women with a camera, wanting to share with you the people and the work that inhabits PresbyLand. If you learn something, have a few laughs, and are interested enough to keep watching, that’s all I’m really aiming for.

So stay tuned for a vlog, coming to a Network Notes near you!

“So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have words of eternal life.’” --John 6:67-68

Kelsey

Feeling a bit sluggish today… after over a month of generally avoiding bread and bread products, I went a little bit crazy today at the breakfast reception following worship here at the Center. One big, one little muffin, a donut hole, and several pieces of the leftover communion bread. Mary Elva’s husband Reg is a fantastic cook, and his communion bread was some of the best I’d ever tasted.

Why the celebration? Today is International Women’s Day, and two of my colleagues led a moving worship service dedicated to the women who have been called to lead in the Presbyterian Church (USA). For those of you not in the know of PresbyLand, this year is the 100th anniversary of women ordained as deacons in the Presbyterian Church and the 50th anniversary of women ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament (aka your pastors). Last year was the 75th anniversary of women’s ordination as elders.

Okay, let me backtrack a moment here—I’m guessing that the majority of you don’t even know what a deacon or an elder is. Or you attend a church that only has deacons. Well, according to my handy dandy Book of Order (very near and dear to the heart of every true Presbyterian, although not quite up there with the Bible), Presbyterian deacons are the ones in charge of ministry to “those who are in need, to the sick, to the friendless, and to any who may be in distress both within and beyond the community of faith” (G-6.0401). In other words, they focus on all those nurturing sort of things. Now if you’re not Presbyterian, your “deacon” probably functions more like a Presbyterian elder… the folks on the board (aka “session” in PresbySpeak) that actually run the church (I’ll refrain here from quoting the Book of Order on their specific responsibilities, since it can be summed up by saying they do a bit of everything. But if you really want to know, check out G-6.0304). The elders are also the people who can represent the congregation in the Presbyterian church’s higher governing bodies, along with ministers.

After looking at those definitions, the order in which women gained admission into leadership of the church kind of makes sense—back in 1906, when women were seen culturally as moral guardians of the home and defenders of the weak, it seemed safe enough to ordain them as deacons. That was a position under the authority of the minister and elders, anyway. But once they were playing a major role as deacons, men began to recognize their gifts as elders. And once women finally had a seat at the decision-making tables of the church as elders, it paved the way for the ordination of our foremothers as pastors.

I think it is also important to point out that, as much as advocacy made these things happen, the recognition of women’s leadership ability in the church also came from women who just went ahead and did stuff. When women were shut out of the church’s power structures in the 19th century, for example, they organized their own Women’s Home Missions Board and Women’s Foreign Missions Board. There they were able to further the work of God on their own terms, funding missionaries and doing necessary social mission in their own communities without direct control from men. Part of the reason women became elders in the first place, in the 1930s, was because they demanded a say in what happened to their mission work after the all-male leadership of the denomination absorbed them into its own missions board. Women not only pushed the church toward justice and equality, but also just went ahead and began building the world God was calling them toward.

Sometimes I wish people of my generation appreciated more the struggles of our foremothers. And when I say “appreciated,” I don’t mean appreciate only through attending a Women’s History Month event. That is good, of course. But the best way to honor what our foremothers did is to carry on their work—not to rest until all women can serve God as they feel called, until all women are free from violence and hunger and discrimination. We should heap more gifts on our children, not lose the ones our mothers gave us.

Happy International Women’s Day—and may you find the freedom today to live out God’s call in your own life.

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God… of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” --Ephesians 4:4-6

Kelsey

I’ve been sitting here, internally debating whether to wax eloquent on the Jacob Zuma rape trial in today’s blog. “Jacob who?” you ask? Jacob Zuma, a former deputy president of South Africa who is standing trial for raping a family friend in November. David dug it up and forwarded it to me as possible fodder for the blog.

In my mind, the noteworthy thing about this trial is the way in which many supporters of Zuma are responding to the victim. They feel that she has been paid off to ruin Zuma’s political career, and they’ve gotten rather violent in their demonstrations outside the Johannesburg High Court—pro-Zuma protestors a few weeks ago hurled rocks at a woman they thought was Zuma’s accuser, injuring someone who had nothing to do with the case. Many seem to feel that the victim has crossed the line in accusing a hero of the African National Congress, one who spent years in prison during South Africa’s apartheid segregation—in a sense, his national sacrifice is more important than any violation of personhood that she might have suffered. And of course, her sexual history is being called into question. Once again, an accuser in a rape case is on trial just as much as the accused.

For me, though, this rape trial brings up an issue I’ve been thinking about lately in terms of talking about international women’s rights. On the one hand, highlighting stories like this on the blog makes clear that the struggle for women’s equality is far from over. You can’t say that our world is safe for women (or men and children, for that matter) when a woman in South Africa is raped every 26 seconds and only one out of nine of those rapes is ever reported—and only seven percent of those reports leads to conviction.

When we highlight these issues in the United States, however, it can set up this sense of false superiority. “Look at those poor African/Asian/Latin American women! Look at how few rights they have!!” we’re tempted to exclaim. “Let’s set up an advocacy group! Send missionaries! Educate those people!”

“Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3). Jesus is right, you know… while we should definitely be concerned about the plight of our sisters abroad, maybe we need to take a look at the plank in our own eye when it comes to women’s rights.

Take rape, for instance. In the late nineties, according to Men Against Sexual Assault at the University of Rochester, the United States had the highest rape rate among countries which report such statistics—13 times higher the Brits and 20 times higher than Japan. Statistics from 2000 said that roughly one out of every five college women reports being a victim of completed or attempted rape. Despite the sensationalist tales you’ll see on the news, 80% of all sexual assaults are perpetrated by an acquaintance of the victim. And over half of all rape prosecutions in this country end in either dismissal or acquittal (compare that to a 69% conviction rate for murder trials and 54% for all other felonies). If you want to verify the stats for yourself, they are only a Google away.

So rather than writing off rape as a major problem in South Africa, we need to acknowledge that rape is a major problem here, too—as is the feminization of poverty, access to quality health care, representation of women in leadership positions, and a host of other concerns that show just how much women still function on the margins of established power structures.

And when we Americans acknowledge the planks in our collective eye, and with humility begin working to remove them, we’ll be in a better place to partner with our international sisters to bring justice to all people.

“Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” --Matthew 7:4-5

Kelsey

I rather wearily boarded my plane home to Louisville late last night. I had spent the weekend in Boston, where I surprised David for his birthday and visited classes at Boston University’s School of Theology. The weekend itself was fantastic, the denouement rather gloomy as I once again passed through the lifeless gate of the metal detector into what has become my Louisville exile. I was perhaps even more discouraged by the comatose state of my cell phone (yes, this is my 5th in 3 years —Hagar the Cell Phone did not die, but I replaced her with an upgrade in December that is causing me trouble right now). Combine all that with the new flying phobia I mentioned a few weeks ago, and I can’t say I was all that cheerful.

I knew the flight attendant was a bit, um, different when I boarded. As he welcomed each of us on the little regional jet, he solemnly bowed in the Japanese style. The sounds of Enya played in the background. I was in seat 1A this time, right beside the flight attendant galley and behind the main cockpit door, giving me plenty of unusual noises to obsess over during taxi and takeoff. And I hate Enya.

But flight attendant Paul was unflappable. He apologized that I would have to miss the safety instructions because of my seating, and I quickly heard why—apparently, Paul was quite the crowd-pleaser further back for his lip-sync version of that obnoxious “soothing lady” voice instruction they always play when they’re talking about what to do if the plane goes down. And before I could settle into my black ruminations about the state of the aircraft, Paul was leaning forward in the jumpseat, elbows on his knees, looking at me expectantly as his takeoff conversation buddy. I was just too polite to ignore him.

As we waited to takeoff, Paul and I talked about churches. Turns out he had once been a Pentecostal too, like me, but had left his church because of what we agreed was a “cult of personality” around the pastor that some churches exhibited. The Presbyterians and Episcopalians, he commented, were two groups that had no trouble with their parishioners being wealthy. But he moved on too quickly for me to correct him about there being lots of Presbyterians in Boston.

Soon we were in the air, with relatively little hand-wringing on my part. How could I get too worried? The wheels had barely left the runway when Paul was out of his seat, bouncing around to get his drink cart.

Now, if you’re ever looking for a place to sit on those little regional jets, I would not recommend seat 1A. It is cold up there!! I remarked on this to Paul as he came back with the drinks—and it was then that he did something I’ve never seen a flight attendant do in my many travels. He turned around and began rummaging through his closet. I thought, “Oh, how nice—he has a blanket back there he’s going to give me.” But it was his own coat that he pulled out and gently laid on top of me. And I dozed off to dreamland, feeling more cozy and safe than I have in many an airline mile.

Sometimes we don’t think it is worth our time to do little things for others. We get so wrapped up in our own lives, our own paranoias, our own problems, that it is all we can do to just get through the day without tearing anyone’s eyes out. Yet how many people can we impact with simple acts of kindness? How many days—or lives—can be changed when we look beyond our own isolated silos and remember our interconnectedness to one another? How many opportunities do we have to embody the peace and presence of Christ in small gestures?

So thanks, Paul the US Airways Flight Attendant, for the coat. And thanks, God, for manifesting your love not only through the people closest to me, but sometimes through perfect strangers.

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” --Hebrews 13:2

Kelsey

Network Notes

Ok. First of all, my deepest apologies for being a day late on this blog. I've been having some trouble knowing what day of the week it is.
That said, my name is Melissa and I'm a junior at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. I just spent two months traveling in Turkey, Greece, and Italy with the religion and philosophy departments at Furman, and Kelsey asked me to share something of this experience with all you faithful readers! So I'll do my best.

My biggest fear coming home, was knowing that I'd get here and everyone would say "so, tell me about your trip!" It is so hard to know what to say and where to start, after two months of travel. Instead of boring you all with a list of churches, museums, monasteries, and historical facts, I'll try to sum up the things I learned and some overall impressions.

In all my travels, but in Turkey especially, our group was an obvious minority. I remember being in two cities in southern Turkey, one about 20 km from the Syrian border, where many students in our group (including myself at times) felt very nervous. These cities were on the conservative end, and were not particularly fond of the United States (probably with good reason). Needless to say, we had to be cautious while traveling here. And even though a lot of people did not enjoy being in these cities, I felt grateful for the experience, because I did not want to be sheltered from knowing how different communities function, or from knowing how those communities might view America. I think it was good for me to be in a position where I was the one having to adjust, as I think that in many cases, we often expect others to adjust to our way of life. It was also good for me to at least get a glimpse of what it can be like to be a religious and ethnic minority, because I certainly am not in this position in the United States.

Speaking of religion (since it was a religion trip after all!), I should also mention being in different worship spaces and communities. It was refreshing, for me, to see how the Orthodox Christian community has kept the mystery of Christianity alive in their worship. All of the communities we visited, whether Muslim, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, or Catholic, seemed to uphold the sacredness of worship. I think this is something that the church in America could learn from, as we often tend to accomodate the larger culture or use our brains too much in worship, trying to understand that which may always remain mysterious. Maybe this is one area in which East and West could learn from one another.

Finally, I learned how much of the earth's resources I use every day, and how little of that I really need.

It was, indeed, the trip of a lifetime for me! I saw some incredible sights, and learned lessons that I will, hopefully, carry with me forever. Shoot me an email if you have any questions or would like to know more! Melissa.McNair@furman.edu

Love y'all!

I want you to save today’s post, and read it whenever anyone attempts to tell you that you’re silly or ditzy. Because I consider myself a fairly well-grounded, got-it-together type of person… and if I did this, you can’t be all that bad.

So last night I went to the gas station to fill up the ‘Stang. I was on the phone with my sister Rachel, telling her all about my future sister-in-law who was having a baby at the time (Kathryn Gabriela Keemer did eventually make it into the world last night, at 6 pm Pacific time. Rejoicing abounds). I pumped my gas, washed my windshield, and then got into the car and drove off.

And then I heard a big “KERPLUNK!”

I looked back, thinking I had hit the Mustang on the curb or something while I was turning away from the gas pump. But then I noticed, between my car and the pump, the dismembered gas nozzle and hose lying on the ground. Apparently, in my excitement about the new baby, I had driven away from the pump without taking the gas nozzle out of my tank. The noise I heard was the nozzle flying out of my tank on one end and the hose snapping away from the pump on the other!

I left Rachel on the phone, laughing hysterically, to go inside the gas station and ‘fess up. I’m not a “detach and run” kind of driver, you know. The attendant was already on the phone. I kind of looked at her and said, “Uhh, what did you want me to do about that?” while pointing in the general direction of the hose. All she said was, “Don’t worry about it. We’ll take care of it.” So I went back out and gingerly picked up the gas hose and nozzle, setting it neatly next to the pump. Then I drove away as quickly as I could.

For those of you concerned about the ‘Stang, the level of damage she may have sustained in the incident is yet to be determined.

Now, to prove that I’m not a total idiot, I went looking on the Web for folks like me. I Googled, “driving away with gas nozzle in tank,” and found that… okay, so I was hoping I’d find some impressive statistic about how one in three Americans has done the same thing. But all I found was a dire warning in bold font on Pacific Pride’s website: “Driving away with the nozzle still in your vehicle can result in fire or spill or explosion, which could lead to extreme damage and serious injury.” So maybe I am an idiot. But I’m an idiot basking in the grace of God—after all, I could have blown up the gas station!

So anytime someone makes you feel like you’re not the brightest light bulb in the box, just reply, “At least I’m not as ditzy as Kelsey!”

That reminds me of a silly joke… how many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb? 10—one to change the bulb, and nine to form a committee to study the matter. Ha ha!

“Remember the wonderful works God has done, God’s miracles, and the judgments God uttered.” --Psalm 105:5

Kelsey

Ann Ferguson, one of my colleagues in the office here, is a big fan of that Leadership and the New Science chick, Margaret Wheatley. It is through her influence that all of us are now reading Wheatley’s new book, Finding Our Way: Leadership For an Uncertain Time as a group. As always, circumstances conspired against me to attend our last staff meeting, so I’m getting to the assigned reading about a month late.

Yet I found the first chapter well worth the time I took to read it. Wheatley proposes that we are in a period of transition from an old story to a new story—a paradigm shift, if you will. The old story, she says, is “a story of dominion and control, and all-encompassing materialism” (17) based on that Enlightenment belief that everything in the universe operates as a machine we can dissect and master. It is a fear-inducing story, too: as we try desperately to control our world, events from Hurricane Katrina to 9/11 conspire against us. We tighten our grip, attempting to bend the world’s mechanisms to our will. And they just won’t bend the way we want them to.

The new story, derived in part from spiritual and wisdom tradition, partly from new scientific discoveries, is one of embracing life in all its diversity. Life in our universe is always looking for ways to create and define itself. All life forms are also intricately related to other life forms—anyone who has sat through a science hall lecture on ecosystems can tell you that. Wheatley argues that in this new story, two forces bring about life: “the need to be free to create one’s self and the need to reach out for relationships with others” (27).

Wheatley is using this “new story” model to talk about the organizations that we work in, organizations like the corporate structure of the Presbyterian Church (USA). But her underlying theme draws me back to our faith story as Christians. When I go on the road to talk about women in the church, I share how the story of Christianity and women is all about the Holy Spirit—that creative force in life, the need to create something afresh, that finds its source in God. Women in the early church were missionaries, teachers, leaders of house churches. Women in the Middle Ages were visionaries and reformers. Women in this country were prophets and evangelists—I’ve read the story of one foremother of the Southern Baptists (ironically enough) who converted the entire jailhouse where she was being held for preaching illegally… and she was pregnant, too! Perhaps women, with their unique ability to bring forth life, are particularly attuned to this creative spark.

When I look at NNPCW, I think that it fits this new story of creating life and reaching out to others. Take our use of the consensus model of decision-making. We acknowledge the diversity in our midst, and rather than trying to squelch that into conformity, we use it to create something anew. Through that creative process, we also forge bonds of community with one another. This ministry isn’t about hierarchies or micromanaging, but about letting the creative juices of the Holy Spirit flow through us.

Indeed, there’s a certain level of idolatry in that old assumption that we can master the world. Today, as many of you know, is Ash Wednesday, the day when we are called to penance and remembrance of our own mortality. At our services here this morning, the minister reminded us that this day is about recognizing our own lack of control. You can sum up our attempts to dominate God’s creation in the words of the minister, as he spread the ashes on my forehead—“You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” All the science, all the study, all the ways in which we attempt to protect ourselves from harm… they all end right there.

And yet it is through the fire of creation, that thirst for relationship with the Divine and one another, that we are living out the new story. God is constantly calling us to embody a new way of being, to deny the old and embrace the new. But doing that requires us to relinquish control, to turn away from the life that leads to death.

Perhaps a pertinent thought to consider on this day of penance.

“He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.’” --Mark 8:34-35

Kelsey