Pastor's Corner March 2021: Twenty Years

It was October, 2000. I had just moved to Philadelphia from Chicago with my husband Zolani, who had just accepted a job as professor at Haverford College, and our 3- and 4-year old toddlers, Sonja and Sarah. I was singing with the Anna Crusis Women’s Choir in a concert held in a little stone church in Chestnut Hill.

Like most churches in which I’ve spent time, this one felt warm, welcoming, and just a little… “rustic.” The pews were arranged in a circle, and the objects in the space – the Jewish seder plate and a Muslim Quran on the altar next to the cross, and a poster with the famous Emma Goldman quote, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution” – suggested a theological expansiveness that resonated with me. “Cool church,” I thought.

During the intermission, as I hung out hydrating and chatting with other singers in what seemed to be the social hall upstairs, I looked at the concert program. In a small box, there was something like a cross between a classified ad and an announcement: “Chestnut Hill United Methodist Church is seeking a part-time Associate Pastor.” Or something like that.

Before intermission was over, I found the soon-to-be-departing Associate Pastor, Rev. Chris Paules and all but told her that I would love the job. Then dashed back for our entrance to the second half of the concert.

None of us know for sure how God really works. But twenty years later, I’m pretty convinced that The Divine Toolkit includes a church secretary typing an ad for a clerical position in a feminist women’s choir program, a seder plate, a Quran, and the anarchist political activist Emma Goldman. Makes me so curious to see what God might be up to next.