Dreaded words...

Thanks to David, I was directed to reading this provocative article on the young clergywomen's blogsite, Fidelia's Sisters. Susan Olsen writes about those dreaded words.... sexual harassment. There's lots of stuff that strikes me in this article. She talks about how we've done a good job in the Church in the last decade teaching clergy about how to proper boundaries and understandings of how to relate to lay people so that we're not sexually harassing others. The more interesting thing to me is the good observation she makes about how the Church has not done a good job teaching congregants about how what sexual harrassment is towards their clergy. And as her statistics share, many young clergywomen have experienced some form of sexual harassment (as they understand it), in their ministry context. Everything from comments about dress and appearance to someone talking about being raped by the head of the church's personnel committee are mentioned as experiences young clergy have had to deal with. And, according to her research, older clergywomen experience less harassment-- whether new to ministry or have been at it awhile. Harassment does not seem to play a huge role in the reasons clergywomen leave ministry....
I know I've experienced my share of sexual harassment in my ten years in ministry. In my last appointment I experienced it both from heterosexual people and from gay men in my congregation--which was a wierd and wild thing to behold. In that same appointment I dealt with lay person to lay person sexual harassment-- something that fractured the congregation due to the "he said, she said," nature of the situation...and these were older people involved in it!
All of which is to say-- it is important for the Church to think about ways to talk with congregations about how to treat one another and their pastor. It is a fine and hard line to walk, I realize. Persons often don't think about the comments they make or the ways their interactions with clergy can be perceived. And while it is important for us clergy folk to take a step back and think about where the comments are coming from, sometimes that can be really hard. (Especially if you are pregnant and hormonal! Can I get an Amen?!?)
I hope you will read the article and let me know your thoughts...

A better word?

I don't know about you, but I've needed time to recover from General Conference and I was not even there! Watching the live stream throughout the event was enough to wear me out. I can understand why it takes as much as 10-12 hours of sleep a day for at least a week to recover. Really, why doesn't General Conference have true Sabbath time? Do they really want people to be crabby when they are earnestly trying to practice holy conferencing?
My father-in-law was one of the delegates from my Annual Conference to General Conference. At a meeting last week he handed us all a packet of goodies-- a FEW of the MANY things discussed over the 10 days. Of course I wanted to know what was decided upon in regards to things like the ordination process. Dan lobbed up a juicy one to me-- the General Conference changed the word for someone commissioned, not fully ordained from "probationary," (like you're in jail) to "provisional," (clearly defined as you're temporary, don't get too comfortable). At first I was just glad to see "probationary" gone-- I hoped to never be on probation in my life or in my work-- so why did the Church decide to use that to describe folks who are in transition and learning? Provisional, while a shiny-happy term, is what in retail the seasonal hires were referred to-- don't expect to see them past New Years kind of deal.
So while I am thankful for the kinder, gentler term, I'm not sure it effectively responded to a major need to re-think and re-imagine our language, process and the like. What do you think?