Changing Church!

Welcome to this blog!

For many years I have researched, taught, preached, and written books to try to persuade people that we need to include Divine Feminine images in worship if we are to have social justice and equality. Many others have been advocating for inclusive worship even longer.

What difference has all this advocating made?  In an effort to answer this question I interviewed twelve diverse ministers from seven Christian denominations, and published their stories in a book entitled Changing Church: Stories of Liberating Ministers: https://wipfandstock.com/store/Changing_Church_Stories_of_Liberating_Ministers

I chose ordained ministers not because I believe they are more important to the church than laypeople, but because they have the most to lose in advocating for change within the institutional church. Ordained clergy depend upon the church for their livelihood.  So when clergy advocate for change, especially change that might not be popular, they take risks with their careers. As we see in these stories, clergy who work to change the institutional church risk sanction by denominational authorities, loss of opportunities for promotion to larger congregations or to prestigious denominational jobs, and often even loss of their jobs.

This blog includes synopses of the stories of some of these ministers. Their stories demonstrate that social justice changes flow from the foundational theological change of including the Divine Feminine in worship language and imagery. These ministers who use inclusive language and imagery in worship also take prophetic stands on race, class, sexual orientation, economic justice, ecology, and other social justice issues. They are working for freedom from interlocking oppressions, believing that it is vital to include biblical female divine names and images in worship in order to have justice for women and all creation.

This blog also includes stories of other people, both lay and clergy, who are changing the church through their prophetic stands on gender, race, ecology, interfaith cooperation, sexual orientation, economic opportunity, and other social justice issues.

It especially features those people who see the connection between inclusion of multicultural female and male images of the Divine and social justice. I continue to look for stories of people who are changing the church through this expansive theology that forms the foundation for an ethic of equality and justice in human relationships. Please send me stories of people, including yourself, who are changing the church in these ways, and/or send me contact information so that I can interview these people and write their stories on this blog.