The ecumenical movement and me
Growing up as a cradle Presbyterian and a preacher’s kid, Presbyterianism was my sociocultural world. When my father got angry with me or my sister, he would often preface his remarks with the exasperated endearment, “Child of the covenant!”
As an adult, I asked him why he did this. He explained that it was his reminder to himself of the sacred nature of his responsibility as a parent and of the vows he had made at our baptism. What it taught me was that I wasn’t just his daughter, I had a larger family, a covenant family—and that our baptismal vows were a lifelong commitment.
Sermons, Bible, Sunday school, and youth conferences taught me that what it means to follow God is to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. While this is by no means an exclusively Presbyterian orientation, I do credit the emphasis on justice in my upbringing to the social gospel tradition of mainline Christianity. And certainly the egalitarian polity of the Presbyterians and our vision of shared ministry between clergy and laity are the foundation of my feminism. After college I worked for the national office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for two years—supplementing my experiential understanding of Presbyterianism with a theological and bureaucratic one.
