Can You Help?

a request from a colleague

Attention Women Priests--I am doing research on the uses of the feminine in ordained ministry. I am interested in having conversations with my colleagues on topics such as: the psychological differences between the ministry of men and women priests; the psychic experience of women in the administration of the sacraments, pastoral care, pastoral theology, administration of churches; the perceived experience of men and women to whom we minister as congregations and as individuals; uses (and abuses?) of the maternal and/or erotic feminine in ministry; experiences in transference and countertransference.

Now that women have been ordained in our church for decades, I think it is interesting to examine exactly what it is we can and do bring to ministry that is different from the masculine Father model that most of us grew up with. Note: my interest is NOT the justice issues involved in women's ordination, or how far we still have to go in achieving parity in the church, but rather the contributions that we actually make as iconic representatives of the feminine in the life of the church.

I am going to be teaching a pastoral theology course at Union Seminary in the fall and thought this would be a subject to look at for a week with the students. I was surprised to find after consultation with academic colleagues in the field that there has been a surprising dearth of work done on this from the academic perspective.

If you are interested in talking with me about this, please respond to me at mcnishrev@aol.com. I am thinking I might do an article or maybe eventually a book on this.

My best to all.

The Rev. Jill McNish, Ph.D.