Look for the Connections

Thinking theologically is what we do when we look for the connections between God and our lives. One of the things we know is that God doesn’t change, but the perspective we see God from does. Each of us connects with different aspects of the nature of God, and the way we do that is usually shaped by our backgrounds, life experiences, education, and so on.

That said, it’s probably time for me to tell you a little more about who I am, and the things that shape my understanding of and relationship with God.

I was born in Australia, where my father worked for IBM and my mother was a teacher. Dad had immigrated from Northern Ireland as a young adult; my mother is a fourth generation Australian. We moved frequently for my father’s work as I was growing up; church was one of the few constants in our lives. Some of my earliest memories are singing at Sunday school when I was 3 or 4, having morning tea and collecting acorns under the oak tree after church, and sitting on the floor looking at the prayer books during the 8 a.m. service which I sometimes attended with my Dad.

I was baptized and confirmed at the age of 14, went to an Anglican high school, and slowly began to sense a call to full-time ministry, though there were no women clergy in Australia at that time. At college, I majored in psychology and church, and discovered I could preach. I began studying theology part time (as well as a graduate degree in women’s studies) and worked for the government for three years before going to seminary (during which time women were finally ordained priest in Australia). I’ve served parishes in four different dioceses, ranging from evangelical to Anglo-Catholic, and under the ministry of eight bishops.

Preaching has been at the core of my own calling, and that led me to the US to do a PhD in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, focussing on Homiletics (which means preaching). I co-edited a book of sermons using the lyrics of the Irish band U2 called Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog, and have written Steeped in the Holy: Preaching as Spiritual Practice. I share my home with a beloved cat Bede, and enjoy reading mysteries, knitting, whitewater kayaking, hiking, and skiing - and my nephews, nieces, and godchildren.

So how does this shape my understanding of God? The core of my call has been the call to preach; that, and my training in practical theology causes me to constantly ask “How does what we know shape what we do?” and “How does what we do shape how we know God?” Living and serving in so many places makes me aware of how God reaches people in such a variety of ways. God’s creativity in creation feeds my own creativity. And because of who I am, the way I most often imagine God is as someone sitting quietly in the armchair beside me, enjoying a blazing fire and occasional conversation.

How does your own life experience shape your understanding of God?