On April 8, a panel of female ministers will reflect on their life in ministry and what they wish they had known when they graduated from seminary. The discussion, "Sacraments in Stilettos, Preaching in Pumps" will take place at 6 p.m. in 0014 Westbrook and is open to Divinity School students, faculty, staff, and graduates.
The event grew out of discussions that took place in Professor Lauren Winner’s Women in Ministry class (Parish 815), and will give students an opportunity to ask questions directly to women involved in parish and chaplain ministry.
"I am very excited about this panel,” said Winner. “I expect the conversation to address some hard, important questions submitted by students, like the place of ambition in the lives and careers of clergy women, how being ordained intersects with women's dating relationships and marriages, and why women love parish ministry—and why they think of leaving it.”
Said Adrienne Koch, M.Div.'11, communications specialist at Duke Chapel and a teaching assistant for the class, “Conversations from whether or not female clergy can wear lipstick on a Sunday morning to how to go about asking for maternity leave have been happening in the halls of the Divinity School for decades. We thought it was time to bring them into the classroom.”
The panel will include Katie Ricks, associate pastor of the Church of Reconciliation in Chapel Hill, N.C.; Sarah Jobe, a chaplain at Raleigh Correctional Center for Women and author of Creating with God: The Holy Confusing Gift of Pregnancy; Ashley-Anne Masters, pastor, chaplain, and co-author of Bless Her Heart: Life as a Young Clergy Woman; Lisa Yebuah, pastor at Edenton Street United Methodist Church in Raleigh, N.C.; and Rev. Dr. Ginger Brasher-Cunningham, senior pastor at Pilgrim United Methodist Church of Christ in Durham, N.C. Winner will facilitate the discussion.
The discussion is co-sponsored by the Divinity School's Ministerial Division and by the Office of Black Church Studies. The Divinity School Women’s Center will provide refreshments.