I had never planned on going into the ministry when I graduated from college in 1953. As a matter of fact, I didn’t have much of a plan for my future at all. In those days, women graduated from college, got married and worked a year or two before they “started” their families and usually resumed their “careers” when the children went to college. A simple plan that was supposed to guarantee a “happy ever after” result!
Every woman didn’t go to college just to find a husband in the 1950’s. But If you wanted to leave home, you’d better prepare for some kind of job or career to support your financial needs and the most common career paths were elementary school teaching or secretarial school.
Just to add a third option, I got a degree in psychology with a minor in education; got married and started a family. And that plan, on paper, looked pretty good. But…like all plans that look good on paper, this one had some serious limitations that would eventually rise to the surface when I added ministry to my vocational plans.
Doors Seemed to Close
How I got into seminary is another story for another time. But when I completed seminary in 1970, as the presiding Methodist Bishop explained, “No one wants a woman minister. I’d never be able to persuade a church to hire you!” Clearly finished before I even started my career, I was therefore surprised when I was invited to work with a group of male clergy who were leaving the ministry because ’It just hadn’t ‘’worked out!’ And I, being desperate for a job, said “yes!”
At the same time, I also said “yes” to a group of women at the Glenview Community Church in Glenview, Illinois, who invited me to become their minister without telling anyone what they had done. The dynamics of that situation were beyond description!
But God always prevails which means that “new life” was about to be born in a church where the Women’s Association became a “voice” for the future of the Protestant Church. They hired their own woman minister and challenged the dominant male voice in ministry as they repeated that familiar historical challenge: “Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead!”
It’s hard to fully capture the effect this action produced in the congregation. My visibility remained on the second floor in a tiny office or in the basement where I conducted a seminar on Sunday mornings. It was as far from the sanctuary as possible.
New Life About to Be Born
But one day all that changed. It happened on a Sunday morning when I was wearing pink high-heeled shoes and black tight-fitting slacks and conducting my seminar in the basement. Due to a shortage of available clergy, I was asked to be the liturgist at the Sunday service and that meant walking down the church’s center aisle while the opening hymn was playing. And that meant my pink high-heeled shoes and black tight-fitting slacks were totally visible to the entire congregation. I was no longer relegated to the basement or the second floor and that was a “game changer!”
No longer able to deny the reality of my ministry, the men of the church suggested I begin some men’s groups, similar to the women’s groups in focusing on spiritual needs and emotional realities. I invited my husband and older son to join the group and they discovered the power of sharing lives and needs.
The women’s groups multiplied and several of the women felt called into the ministry. We brought men and women together into groups for couples. We joined forces and created a “traveling church” which met once a month on a Sunday evening in someone’s home.
We “discovered” God everywhere and the church came to life!
Symbol of Transformation
And the symbol of that transformation turned out to be my pink high-heeled shoes. As far as we could tell, I was the first woman minister to wear pink high-heeled shoes in the history of the protestant church. They were a rallying cry for change and a promise of new life for the church.
And when it was time for me to leave this wonderful church of transformation, those who planned my going away party staged it entirely in pink with the final touch being bottles of PINK PEPTO BISMOL on each table!
It was a symbol of a TRANSFORMED CONGREGATION. IT WAS UNFORGETTABLE - A LIFE CHANGER WHICH WAS A GLORIOUS AFFIRMATION OF THE NEW LIFE THAT GOD ALWAYS PROMISES.
I still have my pink shoes! I don’t wear them anymore. But their existence is always a part of my life story. And the congregation of the Glenview Community church, especially the Women’s Association, is never forgotten. They are the bedrock of my history and my ministry.
Praise God for the Pink Shoes that transformed not only my life but an entire Church! And
Pink remains my favorite color! Amen.
For Reflection (either individually or with a group)
Read the blog. Read it a second time, maybe reading it aloud or asking someone else to read it aloud so you can hear it with different intonation and emphases.
Invite the Divine to open your heart to allow the light of new understanding to pierce the shadows of embedded assumptions, stereotypes, and ways of thinking so that you may live more abundantly.
Then spend some time with the following questions together with anything or anyone who helps you reflect more deeply.
- Have you ever felt confidence in your future plans only to find doors closing all around you? How did you react?
- When have you experienced a moment of transformation? How did it come about?
- Do you have a symbol of that transformation that can remind you that transformation is possible?
Download a pdf including the Reflection Questions to share and discuss with friends, family, or members of your faith community small group.
