Click here to join this CLGS Lavender Lunch via Zoom!
In this online Lavender Lunch, Dr. Pater-Ennis discusses her 2019 book Out in the Pulpit: The Lived Experiences of Lesbian Clergy in Four Protestant Mainline Denomination, which grew out of a dissertation project that included interviews with thirteen lesbian clergy members. These women were interviewed about their early own religious histories, their journeys of rejection from their churches, and their ministries as ordained clergy in one of the following four mainline denominations: The Reformed Church in America; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Presbyterian Church USA; and the United Church of Christ.
The book, based on identity theory, details the process these women went through from early religious identities to lesbian identities to spiritual identities to newly-revised religious identities (that incorporated their sexual identities) and finally to clergy identities.
Rev. Pamela Pater-Ennis, MDiv, LCSW, PhD, is a dually-trained social worker and ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America. She is the founder and CEO of Hudson River Care & Counseling, LLC (NY & NJ & telehealth). In addition to being an adjunct faculty member of the pastoral counseling department at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, she has a large caseload and enjoys supervising graduate interns at her site. Her interests around trauma have spurred a passionate interest in working with religious abuse issues, which has resulted in a new clinical methodology entitled MySanctuaryHealing[tm].