In the tidal pool off the coast of Hawaii, a young girl diving was nothing unusual. Even the brightly colored fish probably didn’t take any notice as she and her family spent another afternoon exploring the cool, crystal blue. Neither could have predicted she would one day grow up to be a seaside priest on another faraway island.
At 5 p.m. Sunday, the Rev. Meredith Holt will be installed as the 26th rector of Galveston’s Grace Episcopal Church, 1115 36th St. She might work at church, but the sea still remains a second home to her.
“I am thrilled to call the island of Galveston my home,” she said. “Coming from a family of Navy seaman, oceanographers and scuba divers, a part of me will always belong near the water.”
I’m always trying to figure out if they’re gay. Found nothing on this one (bio in June newsletter of church), but no mention of husband/partner/spouse/helpmate, children, etc. She did attend Claremont McKenna. . .and VA Theo Seminary. Check out the current lineup at her church:
The Rev. Meredith
The Rev. Helen
Cathy
Cathy
Aaron
Martie
Laura
Pat (female)
(Aaron is the organist, a profession not noted for the masculinity of its practitioners.)
I suspect male attendance will not rise dramatically in the near future.
Wow, #1, really?! I think that if you were trying to “figure out” about me, in regard to my duties at the parish I attend, you’d label me as gay and I’m not inclined that way in the slightest. I have no husband/partner and I don’t date. I have nothing against dating but I don’t like to waste my time and energy and I haven’t met a man who deserves my precious energy or time. Frankly, most are duds in some form these days and I’m not keen on rehabilitating them. I’m also not keen on getting nips and tucks or implants so I can join the superficial set.
So, I have other single women with whom I hang out, most of whom I met at the church. You’d probably label us all as a gaggle of lesbians but we’re nothing of the sort. We’re just women who know for certain that it’s better and much happier to be alone than to be with someone inappropriate. If, O blessed day, a company was able to clone individuals so that everyone could have the spouse of their choosing and the clone was created to be faithful and content, I’d be first in line to order a Colin Firth or a David Beckham model.
The Revs. Meredith and Helen could very well be similar to me and my set. If they lived close by, I would certainly invite them to one of our dinner parties or over for a cuppa. Lots of women have decided that it’s perfectly fine to be single and that “settling” isn’t an option. If fewer people would settle, there would be far fewer divorces. And if people like you whisper about how we’re probably lesbians, oh well.
There. I hope that helps and weighs into your “figuring.” Personally, I’d be more interested in figuring out what sort of spiritual leaders the Revs. Meredith and Helen are.
RE: “I suspect male attendance will not rise dramatically in the near future.”
I agree that organizations that are dominated by female leadership have a lower attraction-rate for males. I make no judgement about whether that’s right or wrong — it just *is* in my observation. It’s also a fairly common observation too.
Just to name a few instances [among many] a friend of mine working in youth leadership [another denomination] observed that a youth leader focusing on attracting the males, first, usually grew the group faster than one that attracted the females first. Another friend, upon arriving at a week-long seminar on a particular niche of his field, was relieved to see that it was majority male, since in his observation, career niches dominated by women meant more bureaucracy, less efficiency, less money, less value, less perceived credibility. We speculated about why that may be and came up with a number of possible reasons. Another group of people I hang out with recognizes that, when engaged in business networking, hanging out with the guys will result in better conversations, networking, more business opportunities, etc. The women *typically* aren’t interested in business discussions, or “shop talk”, [they’re talking about tupperware and jewelry] and they’re engaged in “lifestyle businesses” anyway. When I was younger I was always shocked and surprised by this — these were business settings. But then I learned — that’s just how most women are. The few exceptions were always very interesting.
I could go on . . . and all of these people are “well-liberated” and free. So yes, paradoxymoron, based on the current lineup, you’re probably right about Grace, Galveston.
Since I’m single and hang out with fellow single women, I do find it sad that people are always going to speculate about one’s sexuality based on that singleness. But, you know . . . that’s the consequence of being in a society that has 1) allowed gay activists to force themselves and their chosen activities onto various organizations, 2) acted as if same-sex sexual attraction is “common” [when it’s not] for their own political purposes, and also — thanks to the gay activists 3) acted as if single women hanging out together and loving one another means that they *must* be sexually involved or attracted.
There’s no more grotesque a representation of that latter than the constant public proclamations of someone or other from the past having been a “repressed gay person in the closet” based on the most tenuous of interpretations of their statements and cherished friendships. To read the gay revisionist history, nobody’s ever truly loved their best friend [if they’re the same sex] and not also been engaged in sexual relationships or repressed lesbians.
Without meaning any comment on the foregoing, does anyone know what the current state of Grace Episcopal Church is, and its recent history in terms of membership trends, ASA, plate and pledge? The article seems to say virtually nothing about the church.
Teatime: if your duties involved standing in the front and delivering sermons, that would almost certainly make you gay. It’s not the single status and the ovaries, it’s the choice to be a leader in the TEC, and the (ostensibily) single status and the redundant ovaries. Lots of middle-aged women have decided not to settle, and get an MDiv at EDS while they’re at it, and study feminist theology under the gay Very Rev. Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, or the gay Dr. Angela Bauer-Levesque, or the gay Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng, and those are just the ones I know off the top of my head. And if Holt is gay, then we know what kind of spiritual leader she is, because somehow there’s never been a lesbian priest that isn’t a radical revisionist. The correlation between the utility of one’s ovaries and the likelihood of a “generous pastoral response” approaches 1:1.
Re: men in church
A decade ago, Robbie Low (then CofE vicar) examined Swiss census data concerning the religious practices of the Swiss across generations. He reported his conclusions in a [url=http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-05-024-v] Touchstone article[/url] and they were startling insofar as they demonstrate the importance of fathers attending church:
[blockquote] It is the religious practice of the father of the family that, above all, determines the future attendance at or absence from church of the children.
If both father and mother attend regularly, 33 percent of their children will end up as regular churchgoers, and 41 percent will end up attending irregularly. Only a quarter of their children will end up not practicing at all. If the father is irregular and mother regular, only 3 percent of the children will subsequently become regulars themselves, while a further 59 percent will become irregulars. Thirty-eight percent will be lost.
If the father is non-practicing and mother regular, only 2 percent of children will become regular worshippers, and 37 percent will attend irregularly. Over 60 percent of their children will be lost completely to the church.
Let us look at the figures the other way round. What happens if the father is regular but the mother irregular or non-practicing? Extraordinarily, the percentage of children becoming regular goes up from 33 percent to 38 percent with the irregular mother and to 44 percent with the non-practicing, as if loyalty to father’s commitment grows in proportion to mother’s laxity, indifference, or hostility.[/blockquote]
Teatime2,
Why the seeming animus towards the male of the species? Your Colin Firth and David Beckham specifications appear rather superficial, assuming you are being serious.
I think paradoxymoron may be speaking to the feminization of the church and its negative consequences. I saw this up close and personal in the United Methodist Church. It resulted in the remaining male clergy being gelded, and sermons that incessantly talked about the evils of white male heterosexual privilege, universal salvation, and justification through the works of the Democrat party.
Happily, this is not the end of the story. I just heard about a local retreat called “Man Up” held for the men and male youth of a parish. In addition to solid teaching about the Christian responsibilities of being the spiritual head of the household, the virtues of a good Christian women and how to honor her, it also included male bonding while fishing and shooting guns at a target range. We need more of this if traditional, muscular Christianity is going to survive.