Working Pastors, Writing Pastors: A Week with Lillian Daniel and Martin Copenhaver
Sunday, July 8 - Saturday, July 16, 2012
Like many writers, writing helps me to make sense of my own life. There are ways in which I do not know what I believe until I have written it; do not understand what I have experienced until I have written out the story. The ministry is a calling that begs for prayerful reflection. Without that, it can become a never-ending to do list, and we the clergy just another species of professional sprinting through busy lives. Some pastors find that reflection time through prayer, spiritual direction and conversation, but I find it most deeply through writing. Viewed this way, the task of the preparing a weekly sermon becomes a gift. My church members only get a few minutes each week to hear about a scriptural text that I have had a week to live with, and to write with. I begin each week thinking that I am reading, writing and commenting upon the text. But I always end the week seeing that God's text was reading me. - Lillian Daniel
I write because it helps me understand more clearly what I experience as a pastor, to see the ordinariness of this work with the eyes of the heart enlightened. It helps me remember why I got into this crazy business in the first place. And it reminds me why I love this calling-much as writing a love letter can refresh one's awareness of the devotion one has for a loved one.
Martin Copenhaver
Working Pastors, Writing Pastors: A Week with Lillian Daniel and Martin Copenhaver aims to help active pastors integrate writing into their vocational lives.
Are you a busy pastor who:
- is looking for insight on the pastor as writer?
- is seeking instruction in the craft of writing?
- would like to write in conversation with learned and learning colleagues?
If so, consider applying to Working Pastors, Writing Pastors. This practicum is open to pastors who demonstrate a keen interest in and capacity for reaching a broad audience of readers. Your work may take on various forms of pastoral writing, but the goal remains the same: to illumine and feed the spiritual lives of everyday people.
The Collegeville Institute will cover travel expenses to and from the workshop, as well as room and board. Those who join the workshop will be expected to reside at the Institute throughout the entire week. Participants will share apartment space, though each person will be assigned a private bedroom. The program is limited to 12 participants.
Bios
The Rev. Martin B. Copenhaver is the Senior Pastor of Wellesley Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where he has served since 1994. Before moving to Wellesley, he served churches in Connecticut, Vermont and Arizona. He is the author or co-author of five books, including To Begin at the Beginning: An Introduction to the Christian Faith; Good News in Exile (with Anthony Robinson and William Willimon; and Words for the Journey (with Anthony Robinson). He writes for a number of periodicals including The Christian Century and Congregations. Currently, he is at work on a book on discernment and decision making within the Congregational tradition. Reverend Copenhaver serves on the Board of Trustees of Andover Newton Theological School, where he has taught preaching, and on the Board of Advisors of Yale Divinity School. He and his wife, Karen, a partner at the law firm of Choate, Hall and Stewart, have two children: Alanna, who lives and works in Washington, DC, and Todd, who lives and works in Minneapolis, MN.
The Rev. Dr. Lillian Daniel has served as the Senior Minister of the First Congregational Church of Glen Ellyn, Illinois since 2004, after serving for eight years as the Senior Minister of the Church of the Redeemer, in New Haven, Connecticut. She also hosts the Chicago based television program "30 Good Minutes" featuring the leading voices in religion today. Reverend Daniel is the author of the book Tell It Like It Is: Reclaiming the Practice of Testimony, the story of one church's attempt to get main line Protestants to talk to each other about God. A frequent contributor to The Christian Century magazine, her work also appears in the Journal for Preachers and Biblical Preaching Journal. She l has taught preaching at Yale Divinity School, where she serves on the Board of Advisors, and at Chicago Theological Seminary, where she serves on the Board of Trustees. Married to Lou Weeks, a labor union organizer, Reverend Daniel is the proud mother of two school age children, Calvin and Abigail Weeks, and the not-so-proud owner of one badly behaved dog named Lucky.
Martin Copenhaver and Lillian Daniel are the co-authors of the recent book This Odd and Wondrous Calling: The Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers, an appreciative, humorous and honest look at the ministry. Lillian and Martin also write for the "God is Still Speaking" identity campaign for the United Church of Christ.