Your One Wild and Precious Life: Women on the Road of Ministry

The title of this lecture is taken from a poem entitled “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver. For most of the poem she meanders through open fields on that gorgeous day, observing details of grasses, bugs, and birds. At the end she muses: Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn\u27t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? The poet here poses the question of vocation. You have only one life, and it is a treasure. It is also finite: some day you will die. How will you spend your hours and your energies? What will you do “with your one wild and precious life?” I chose this title to highlight the astonishing fact that in our day women in remarkable numbers are answering this question by choosing to engage in ministry. Let us be clear that women have always been ministering in the church, in unofficial and undervalued, though irreplaceable, ways. Think of the millions of women named “anonymous” through the centuries who have handed on the faith and enacted God’s love in the world. The better-known story of the ministries of women’s religious orders is another magnificent case in point. But now a surging wave of lay women are becoming educated with theological and pastoral skills in order to take initiatives and serve in ministerial positions. The women students and alumnae of the Graduate Program in Pastoral Ministry here at Santa Clara are a good case in point; your ranks are swelled around this country and around the world. What makes this phenomenon so striking is that it is a free choice. No woman has to do this; our culture applies no social pressure on a woman to become active in ministry; women today have multiple career options, and this surely is a path that will make no one rich! What is behind this? It is a matter of vocation. You may know the lovely line by Frederick Buechner: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Women with deep gladness are responding to a call from the Holy Spirit of God, heard deep in their hearts, to take the giftedness of their “one wild and precious life” and meet the world’s deep hunger for meaning and healing, liberation and redemption. I hasten to add that laymen, too, are responding to this call and giving their lives in service to the world through pastoral ministry, and not one of these dedicated lives should be overlooked. But given the history of women’s subordination in the church and exclusion from many ministries, a situation that continues even as we speak, the phenomenon of growing numbers of women in pastoral ministry deserves a special look. There are now more qualified women in ministry than ever before in the history of the church. Something new is afoot. In this lecture I invite you to consider this subject in three points [the proverbial 3] roughly organized in terms of past, present, and future. First, we will place this development in an historical framework. Second, we will move .to the spiritual heart of the matter, the vocational call to ministry rooted in women’s baptism. And third, in view of the conflicts and ambiguities that continue to plague much of women’s experience in the field, we will draw encouragement from the dangerous memory of biblical women to accompany us into the future

The ADA and Collective Bargaining Issues

This brochure on collective bargaining and the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) is one of a series on human resources practices and workplace accommodations for persons with disabilities edited by Susanne M. Bruyère, Ph.D., CRC, SPHR, Director, Program on Employment and Disability, School of Industrial and Labor Relations – Extension Division, Cornell University

A Welcome Attack on American Values : How the Doctrines of Robert Owen Attracted American Society

In November 1824, Robert Owen came to the United States with the intention of putting his beliefs about society into practice. He had done so once before in the “new system of society” that he had created at New Lanark (the site of a textile factory he owned), in which he singled out individualism, competition and selfishness as the sources of social evil. The prescribed cure was an improvement of their environment and circumstances, which Owen believed to be the true determiners of a person’s character. The experiment was considered a great success, and served as an international model. This perception of man’s character as being determined by his cultural surroundings was shared by many Americans of the time, as evidenced by the popularity of various reform movements. With the intention of recreating a society like the one he had engineered at New Lanark, Owen purchased the Indiana village of Harmonie from the religious sect (the Rappites) that inhabited it, rechristened it New Harmony, and issued an open invitation to all people to join his communitarian experiment. The excitement that ensued around the country was almost palpable as Owen embarked on a massive promotional tour for his venture: he met privately with former presidents, he recruited new members in Philadelphia, and he lectured in front of numerous statesmen, proclaiming the glories of his “new system of society.

Blood, Power, and Privilege: Why the man who ordered the slaughter of a race was not racist

This article argues that Trujillo\u27s ordered massacre of the people in Haiti did not stem from his own racism. Rather, it argues that it was motivated by a desire to please the Dominican elite and a desire for personal power

Civic Service Worldwide: Defining a Field, Building a Knowledge Base.

In this article, the authors summarize results of a global assessment of civic service. Searching by country and using information from organizational memberships, publications, and the Internet, 210 civic service programs were identified in 57 countries

The Effects of a Self-Monitoring Package Using a Tactile Cueing Device on Student On-Task Behavior in Special Education and General Education Settings

Research has shown that self-monitoring can be effective in different settings and with a range of students as well as problem behaviors. However, teachers who use self-monitoring techniques have difficulties in using an effective cueing system as well as generalizing the newly acquired skill into the general education classroom. This study extends the literature by utilizing a tactile cueing device to increase the percentage of intervals of on-task behavior as well as increasing the intervals of on-task behavior in an inclusive general education classroom setting