Clergy Moms

Book excerpt: Walking the tightrope of home and parish life for clergy parents is notoriously difficult in all the mainline Protestant denominations, but most books on ordination and vocation ignore the question of family life. The ordination of women, the prevalence of two-career marriages, the increasing need to care for aging family members, and the recognition of non-traditional families have shed new light on clergy family dynamics within the family and the church. This book uses accounts of experiences gathered through interviews and surveys of clergy and their family members, primarily in the Episcopal Diocese of Newark. Its ultimate goal is to develop a holistic theology of vocation that has implications for the church, the clergy, and all families and nourishes and protects faith and family life.