The Baptist Standard reports:
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (ABP)—As an ordained Southern Baptist woman pastor, Nancy Sehested became a celebrity in some circles when her Tennessee church was pushed out of its association in the late 1980s for hiring her. Today, she serves outside the limelight as a prison chaplain. ...
Sehested suspects many women involved in the early struggle for acceptance no longer are in church leadership. ...
"I think I would have left the church completely if it had not been for the fact I cannot figure out any other community that has this grand story of Jesus." ...
She found a home, too, among the least-loved and furthest outcast of society when she became a prison chaplain.
Every day, she enters the walls of maximum security Marion Correctional Institution expecting to glimpse the holy in the midst of a population that has committed unholy acts.
"I'm a priest in the village of the damned," she said.
"Prisoners are the truth bearers in our culture," Sehested said. "Regardless of what we say, this is what we model: money is all; end a conflict with violence; address any difference of opinion with blame, dismissing or shunning. They bear that truth to us in vivid and destructive ways." ...
Click link to read the article. And for a slightly longer version of this article above, see this Associated Baptist Press article
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For more on Nancy Sehested, there's this short bio on the Union Theological Seminary website:
[quote]The daughter and granddaughter of Southern Baptist ministers, the Rev. Nancy Sehested ['78] sought ordination in the Southern Baptist Church despite the refusal of the Convention to approve such a role for women. She was called by Prescott Memorial Baptist Church in Memphis, which was "disfellowshipped" by the Shelby County Baptist Association.
Sehested became a major "story" in 1987, and was later featured in Bill Moyers’s documentary examining the church's policies and politics. As of 2003, Nancy and her husband Kenneth Sehested ['78] are co-pastors at Circle of Mercy in Asheville, N.C., an ecumenical congregation rooted in the Baptist and Congregational practice.[/quote]Read the full article
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (ABP)—As an ordained Southern Baptist woman pastor, Nancy Sehested became a celebrity in some circles when her Tennessee church was pushed out of its association in the late 1980s for hiring her. Today, she serves outside the limelight as a prison chaplain. ...
Sehested suspects many women involved in the early struggle for acceptance no longer are in church leadership. ...
"I think I would have left the church completely if it had not been for the fact I cannot figure out any other community that has this grand story of Jesus." ...
She found a home, too, among the least-loved and furthest outcast of society when she became a prison chaplain.
Every day, she enters the walls of maximum security Marion Correctional Institution expecting to glimpse the holy in the midst of a population that has committed unholy acts.
"I'm a priest in the village of the damned," she said.
"Prisoners are the truth bearers in our culture," Sehested said. "Regardless of what we say, this is what we model: money is all; end a conflict with violence; address any difference of opinion with blame, dismissing or shunning. They bear that truth to us in vivid and destructive ways." ...
Click link to read the article. And for a slightly longer version of this article above, see this Associated Baptist Press article
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For more on Nancy Sehested, there's this short bio on the Union Theological Seminary website:
[quote]The daughter and granddaughter of Southern Baptist ministers, the Rev. Nancy Sehested ['78] sought ordination in the Southern Baptist Church despite the refusal of the Convention to approve such a role for women. She was called by Prescott Memorial Baptist Church in Memphis, which was "disfellowshipped" by the Shelby County Baptist Association.
Sehested became a major "story" in 1987, and was later featured in Bill Moyers’s documentary examining the church's policies and politics. As of 2003, Nancy and her husband Kenneth Sehested ['78] are co-pastors at Circle of Mercy in Asheville, N.C., an ecumenical congregation rooted in the Baptist and Congregational practice.[/quote]Read the full article
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Thanks for posting. This is the kind of challenging, grace-filled Christian faith that too often gets ignored by both the Left and the Right. As G.K. Chesterton says "It is not that the Christian faith has been tried and found wanting. Too often it has been found difficult and left untried".
By Bert
08/14/2011