Project Rev. Dr. Mom complete!

As it came time for me to receive my diploma and hood, I felt my body get all giddy inside. Instead of feeling more grand or esteemed, I felt like a little girl excitedly opening her gifts on Christmas morning! Receiving my doctorate was one of my biggest dreams and my next step will be looking for a publisher for the book form of my dissertation. I wanted to somehow involve the people close to me, and I was grateful to have my parents, my sister and her fiance, the friend I stayed with the most and her son, along with Robbie and my girls. I gave each of my girls a cape with hood, so that they could feel special when they see me receive my "hood" which looks more like a cape. Afterwards we celebrated at one of my favorite places to study and drink coffee, Cafe Brazil.

For my thesis, I researched and wrote about the intersections of motherhood and ministry. My favorite statement that summarizes my work:

This paper reflects the theological renderings of my experience and seeks to guide any minister or mother to name their own overlapping identities, in the hope that we may all come to see the benefits of an interconnected self, where our household activities and social ministry contribute to the flourishing of the minister, the household, and the community.

I identified many mother ministers in the Bible and in history by looking for female leaders who claimed the title of mother, engaged the community in theological reflection, and administered care in the manner of a pastor. I was so amazed at the long list. I envision these women as my great cloud of witnesses standing behind me and whispering words of encouragement.

The mother ministers identified in my paper from my dissertation defense presentation.

In the acknowledgments of my dissertation, one paragraph is devoted to thanking the many congregations which mothered me through this experience.

Many churches have supported me in these studies as well as influenced the ministry reflections shared in these pages. My home church in Ponca City, Oklahoma, First Presbyterian Church, which supported my call to ministry and ordained me as a Minister of Word and Sacrament has supported me and my family financially and spiritually with extensive prayers, words of encouragement, and a theological study scholarship set up in the 1950’s by a previous pastor and his wife. I have changed calls three times during this paper, and each of those churches supported my work financially, prayerfully, and physically with food, pulpit supply, and continuing education supplies: St. Luke Presbyterian Church of Amarillo, Texas; First Presbyterian Church of Stillwater, Oklahoma; First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, Missouri. Our church family extends with many cousins, mothers, fathers, and siblings, and their support have helped me birth this paper to the world.

Thank you for being part of the great cloud of witnesses to God's love and power in my life. Let's see how God wants to use this work to birth and support new life in the world around us!