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The sun was going down around the Wicklow mountains of Ireland as I circled the women's church maybe as many as thirty times.
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I approached the women's church of the settlement, located at the corner of the boundaries of the community where the sheep continued to graze around the small Celtic cross stones marking the graves of the unbaptized babies. In that far away place, where pilgrims had been traveling for centuries, I understood the need for healing. In the fall of 1997 I took a spiritual pilgrimage to Glendalough, Ireland, the site of a sixth-century monastic settlement of St. The places of pain that we as women have experienced from the Church and the injustices of the past can be transformed into places of power as we prepare to lead alongside men in the future Church. What must we as women do? One, we need to find personal healing for the wounds of the past. Community rather than career building will be the future focus of church leaders. The future Church will not be a launch pad for building a clergy career but will be a place where a community of faith comes alive in egalitarian ways.
#THE TESTAMENT OF MARY LINDA REITER PROFESSIONAL#
The Church exists for the people, not just to provide a career ladder for professional ministers. The Church needs leaders who can energize people. On the other hand, the minister who loves being with people and who can inspire people with their words and rituals are more likely to experience happiness in the ministry. A minister who sees the calling as work to accomplish while sequestered in a fine study with God and books will neglect the fullness of ministry. Clergy folks need to be truly interested in people.
#THE TESTAMENT OF MARY LINDA REITER HOW TO#
The Church need leaders who know how to enhance the self-worth of others.
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The Church of tomorrow will be energized by a majority of well-informed people, not by a minority of power brokers. Women tend to disperse information, not hoard it for the sake of power. The behind-closed-door sessions that create an elite based on currency of information cannot be tolerated either in the corporate world in the future Church. The future Church, likewise, benefits from a leader who is not afraid to share power and information. The same drive that demands a casually dressed, personally involved, people-oriented CEO also drives the Church to seek leaders who can identify with the average person and involve everyone in the life of faith. The reality is that it is truly the laity who move the Church, not the professionally-trained clergy. Leaders are not as effective if removed from the people. Post-modern people are less inclined to place absolute confidence in the establishment. The clergy maintained lines of separation from laity through divisions in theological education, language, ecclesiastical garb, even in physical distance between pulpit and pew. The priests held the sacred scriptures and later the pastors mandated their interpretations. In ecclesiastical tradition, the clergy have always ruled the laity, at least in formal, structural ways.