Future farmer-priests of America

November 27, 2012

My wife works as a vegetable farmer; she's also pursuing ordination in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago. The diocese just launched a magazine, and the first issue includes a short profile of Nadia and her work. Here's an excerpt:

[Nadia's] days at the divinity school did more than give her the time to study scripture, church history and pastoral care. The experience ignited a call to ordained ministry and rekindled a desire to get back to the land. Nadia quickly honed in on the deep roots Christianity has in agriculture and notes that “this connection to the earth, the cycles of seasonality, and gathering together at table is what the church came out of, and in large parts of the world, it is still who we are.”

It wasn’t long before Nadia’s studies, experiences as a hospital chaplain intern, and longing to return to the farm led her to wondering if there was a place for her in church leadership. Could she be called to breaking bread and preaching the good news of Jesus, who understood that food was more than mere metaphor but the source of everlasting life? Could she be called to growing wholesome food for people’s tables Monday through Saturday and presiding at the Eucharistic table on Sunday?

Read it all (pdf; article begins on page nine).

Steve Thorngate

The Century managing editor is also a church musician and songwriter.

All articles »

Early Christianity, fragment by fragment

A new published volume of ancient papyri contains sayings, attributed to Jesus, that were previously unknown—including a dialogue with a disciple named Mary.

by Elizabeth Schrader Polczer