A Church of Her Own: What Happens When a Woman Takes the Pulpit

I was so excited when I saw that this book was published that I immediately got it, read it, and started recommending it to friends. As a young child, my first minister was a female, and I was unaware of any particular issues for women clergy. It seemed natural to see a woman preach every Sunday and lead my small church. As I became more involved in my denomination and eventually went to Harvard Divinity School, the stories I began hearing were appauling. I am so thankful that Sarah Sentilles has gathered these stories both to make the church aware of what it is doing and to support and encourage those of us who are attempting to follow our vocation in ministry but are hitting so many walls based on our gender (and sexual orientation). This book was a fantastic read as I began my ordination process and helped me further articulate my own call and claim my own ways of being in ministry. It also helped me consider the role of the institution church and ordination in ways that even divinity school had not previously asked of me. It offered me the support I needed as I was making some important decisions regarding my ordination. I have chosen to continue towards ordination but with a new understanding of what it means and how I define it. I strongly recommend this book to other young women who are attempting to follow their call to ministry as well as any who hope to make the church a more relevant, creative, just, and inviting place.

Do you go to church? Have you ever been to church? Are you a woman or know someone who is? Then A Church of Her Own is a must read. In fact the ostensible premise of the book is much smaller than its scope. While presented as if it were simply about women clergy, on a deeper level what this book really addresses are questions of how religions foster the growth of whole people - whether they celebrate and challenge the real lives and experiences of congregants and leaders or whether they supress and oppress them. Told in blog style vignettes, the stories in this book are easy to read, easy to relate to - whether you "know" these people or not, they have interesting stories to tell and stories that are important for all people who care about religion to read. While the author's primary experience is with the Episcopal Church, she includes stories from other faiths, and two of her later chapters are her most powerful - when she writes about Catholic women and about transgendered clergy. This book should be a primer for anyone who cares about what under-30-year olds want out of church. There are many important messages here about what younger generations crave spiritually and are turning to church for, and then often leave the church because they aren't getting. Agree with her choices, her conclusions, relate to her experiences - or not, this book is important to read and think about.

IMHO, the name of this review should have been the title of this book... as I read through the first 3/4 of this book, I was struck by two things: how well-written it was, and how bitter the author was about her experience with trying to serve in the church. Turns out, writing the book was healing for her. In the final pages, she comes to realize her interviews with the women for this book have washed over her soul and made her long to be accepted or requested by a congregation. Her bitterness turns to grief. I was sorry she hadn't spent more time on this discovery, less on all the negative aspects of women in ministry. (I do know women who are serving, loving it, but have also had frustrations. That seems rather typical, I think.) This was not the kind of book I was expecting when I bought it. Often I wondered how young this author was--her contemporaries were women in their 20s. And, I'm sure it is hard to receive respect when one is a woman, that young, and as some of her friends did, look and act so contemporary that some might have thought they still belonged on a college campus. Still, she is a fabulous writer (or she has a fantastic editor, or both). She's obviously done tons of research that's invaluable. For years I struggled to find something contemporary on the shelf about women in the ministry... so a book like this was/is sorely needed. The slant is overtly liberal and gives ample space to the disenfranchised (gay/lesbian/transgendered/etc.). I did feel much compassion for, and learned more about those who are frustrated because the traditional church will not ordain them, yet God is calling them to serve in some meaningful way. I totally "get" the inclusive language she talks about. I'm a Cady Stanton fan, sat through many women's studies classes--yet I can't say that I have as strong of a revulsion to the male-only language (Father, Son, etc.). Although I do love the NRSV and the fact that it uses "brothers and sisters"!

Sarah Sentilles set out to be an Episcopal priest, attending Harvard Divinity School, and seeking ordination in that denomination. She found the ordination process difficult, because she did not conform to some rather narrow expectations of what a priest should be. She blamed herself for not being good enough, and so great was her pain, she completely withdrew from the Church. In A Church of Her Own, Sarah Sentilles studied in depth a problem that she sees to be of major importance in organized religion. She found that although more and more women are entering divinity schools and the ordination process, these same women are leaving the Church in even larger numbers. She wanted to find out how and why called and committed Christian women were becoming so discouraged and disillusioned in a very short time. [inset as quotation] "...I realized that the brightest, most creative women I knew were having trouble. Either they struggled through the ordination process like I did, or, once ordained and working in churches, they were silenced, humiliated, and abused. These women--women who were faithful, who brought the house down when they preached, who had dedicated their lives to serving God--were being driven out of churches or were leaving the ministry altogether." (p. 3) When I read this, I became very defensive and wondered if I wanted to read further. Having been in churches with female pastors and counting several as friends, my experience seemed the opposite of Sentilles'. Surely she exaggerated. But I read on--and as I read, I became persuaded. I also became angry and disillusioned. If churches can treat people like that, what hope is there for the world? The interviewees, from across the country and from different denominations, were honest and frank and needed little prompting to talk about their experiences. Some were still in the church and their real names were not used--their real feelings, however, came through in heartbreaking detail. They reported many incidents of sexism. One of the most common, seemingly harmless practices involved a woman pastor being complimented or criticized about her clothes, her hair style, her weight, or her "time of the month." Male pastors seem never to have that experience. Interesting, isn't it? Almost all women were offered lower salaries than their male counterparts because (it was rationalized) men were known to be the breadwinners of the family. Many congregations could not deal with a pregnant pastor. It makes everyone uncomfortable, they were told, to bring that "sexual connotation" to the pulpit. Do these same congregations think their male pastors are celibate? Of course not, but their sexuality was not so overt. Many women--and some men--come as new pastors, fresh from leading seminaries with a passion to serve. They might use what is called "inclusive language," terms which do not exclude or demean on the basis of race, religion, or gender. Most often, the women's efforts to speak inclusi

I am thoroughly enjoying the book. The author deals with past and present patriarchal obstacles that would ordinarily prevent an elevated sense that there is true value for women to assume leadership roles within the church. A well written description of what to look forward to when women are finally accepted and valued in in true pastoral capacities in influencing a valued and healing role of the soul and the many dimensions overlooked in a male dominated profession.