By: Harry Fritzenschaft on May 31, 2019
Emma Percy draws on her Ph.D. work and experience as a priest to describe how Church of England parish priests might function – using the model and language of motherhood. The reviewer found the female perspective a fresh alternative to the plethora of male perspective dominated writings. Despite the title, the reviewer felt the allegory…
By: Mary Mims on May 31, 2019
Something must be lost in the translation. In the book, What Clergy Do: Especially When it Looks Like Nothing, by Emma Percy, she describes “Good Enough Mothering” and uses it as a metaphor for “Good Enough Parish Priests” (Percy 2014, 38). Being good enough is not a compliment, and in today’s culture of leadership excellence,…
By: Digby Wilkinson on May 31, 2019
Having just emerged from the aftermath of the suicide of an 18 year old girl from our church, it was a little odd reading a book titled, What Clergy Do. Especially when it looks like nothing.[1] In truth, I almost couldn’t be bothered reading it. My daughter is 18 too, so it was too close…
By: Sean Dean on May 31, 2019
The first time I watched the movie Jurassic Park I really disliked the character of Dr. Ian Malcolm (played by Jeff Goldblum). He was cocky and a little too suave for his own good and worse yet he was not the order loving Dr. Alan Grant. Dr. Malcolm’s area of study is Chaos Theory, which…
By: Shawn Hart on May 31, 2019
It is interesting while reading through “What Clergy Do,” just how similar and yet, how different the various religious groups see their role as minister. Aside from the obvious male/female perspective in this read, there were also a variety of differences that were based upon the traditions and practices of the Church of England[1] as…
By: Rhonda Davis on May 31, 2019
It is finished. I made it. Another school year has come to an end in the Davis house. Since both my husband and I work in higher education while we parent 3 sons, May is full of triumphs and failures. I attend commencements, board meetings, banquets, pinning ceremonies, commissioning, award ceremonies, field days, sports banquets,…
By: Karen Rouggly on May 30, 2019
My grandpa is dying. Last night, we got home from visiting him while he is still doing well enough to interact with us. My family originates from Reading, Michigan and while I love living in California, there is something nostalgic about visiting the old homestead. Because we were there over Memorial Day, we went to…
By: Andrea Lathrop on May 30, 2019
If I had a dollar for every time I have had the conversation “what does our ministry staff even do all day?”…I would have at least $65. Ok, that is not as much as I thought when I first started that sentence, but you get the point. Very few of these conversations have been with congregants;…
By: Jean Ollis on May 30, 2019
Dr. Emma Percy – it’s challenging to track down information on you! I take pride in my sleuthing abilities, but Emma Percy gave me a run for my money. Alas I located her dissertation and was able to dig a bit deeper into her research in an attempt to understand her context of gender (mothering…
By: Mark Petersen on May 30, 2019
I’ve benefited from reading Emma Percy’s fresh book on clergy, even though I’m not ordained nor in pastoral ministry. Her work exposes how the way we view life is often diminished by an entrenched, gendered perspective; masculine models predominate in pastoral ministry. Flipping things around allows for the exploration of creative solutions of problems that…
By: Harry Edwards on May 30, 2019
Reading Emma Percy’s book What Clergy Do: Especially When It Looks Like Nothing turned out to be an enjoyable and fun experience. When I first scanned the pages, (a practice I do before I actually sit down to read any book) I thought “would the cultural and denominational distance between me and the author prevent…
By: Jenn Burnett on May 30, 2019
I’ve never really fit into a mould. I’ve never had any desire to. For a season I was a rugby playing, pastor mom. (I’ve since stepped back to rugby coaching.) Nobody in my life could really reconcile that combination of identities, but I found the tensions were liberating. My final season of varsity rugby, I…
By: Dan Kreiss on May 30, 2019
I had a friend who had been in ministry for several good years but whose advisor and counselor suggested he return to the home building trade where he would be able to recognize the results of his work. The thinking was that he was experiencing unnecessary stress due to the intangible nature of discipling others.…
By: Mario Hood on May 30, 2019
In What Clergy Do, Especially When It Looks Like Nothing, Emma Percy drawing on her Ph.D. work and experience as a priest describes the life and work of modern-day priest using the model and language of motherhood. Many reviewers were aptly aware of the parallels between Percy’s work and that of Naomi Stadlen’s saying, “the…
By: Greg on May 30, 2019
Jonathon Swift said, “I never saw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular, but some degree of persecution.”1 I became a full-time pastor at the age of 27. Young, bold, naive, and scared to death, were definitely adjectives…
By: Dave Watermulder on May 30, 2019
There is a very old (and not very funny) joke about pastors and their schedules. It goes something along the lines that a pastor only works “one day a week”. I have been told some version of this quip more times than I can count, often when running into church members or community members in…
By: Jennifer Williamson on May 30, 2019
Through my research, I’m coming to the conclusion that missionaries will thrive and bear fruit when they are intentional about working collaboratively with national partners. But this conclusion is based on faith, not sight. I can’t point to examples where this approach has proven effective, I can only stand by what I know to be…
By: Colleen Batchelder on May 29, 2019
How do you comfort someone who’s grasping onto the hand that she’s held for forty-seven years? How do you form words that ease the pain and bring some sense of peace? How do you fill the deafening silence with hope when one’s last breath makes the world stand still? The Rev Dr. Emma Percy, Chaplain…
By: Rev Jacob Bolton on May 29, 2019
Much has been made in the Presbyterian Church (USA) about using gender inclusive terms to describe God. Since 1971, the General Assembly (the body of the church that makes nationwide policy decisions) has taken action “encouraging the use of inclusive language in worship, education, publications, and theological and biblical reflection.”[1] Being one of those “Gen…
By: Jay Forseth on May 29, 2019
While searching Google Scholar for book reviews on this week’s reading, I was immediately struck by an article that referenced What Clergy Do: Especially When It Looks Like Nothing by Emma Percy. In a journal called “Rural Theology” the authors stated four situations that might cause the greatest isolation for a local church pastor: [1] Bi-vocational;…
