A song she wrote, but never sung...



The story I am working on now is centered on woman's ordination. Today I spoke with Rev. Susan Peterson of Gloria Dei, in St. Paul.

I interviewed her for two reason. First, at the end of this summer she will retire. Second, she was the first woman to be the head pastor in a large ELCA congregation. We spoke about looking back, looking ahead, joys and hopes.
We also spoke about challenges. She shared about the real struggles of being a woman in a leadership role. It was tempting for me to direct a narrative that suggested those struggles are historic and over, but they aren't.

I was very humbled when I asked her to share what it was like for her to experience the struggles (facing hostility/skepticism in various forms) "It wounded me," she said. "It wounded me because people were hostile to me for being the person God created me to be."

Wow.
It would be easy for a person who had experienced that to become bitter. Susan, though, allowed God to work in those parts of her life. She talked about the reality of the Holy Spirit, how she is still hopeful, and how those experiences created in her a sensitivity to those who are marginalized.

It would be easy to say that it is incredible, that in this day and age, people treat women so differently. That statement is innocuous and unhelpful.

(You may notice I am going back and updating posts. As new content is uploaded to the Metro Lutheran's webpage I will upload the story that provides context to the post. A link will not be updated to this post until after the August issue is printed.)

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