CLERGY WOMEN: AN UPHILL CALLING ($24.95)

17.95

Based on nearly 5,000 surveys submitted by members of sixteen Protestant denominations, plus hundreds of interviews, this book offers authoritative information about the real experiences of women (and men) clergy, along with anecdotes to display what the life of American clergy is like today. Perhaps the most significant event in twentieth-century American Protestant churches has been the entry of tens of thousands of women into the church's ordained ministry. How are these women's experiences as ministers different from those of their male counterparts? What are their callings and careers like? What are their prospects for employment, income, and satisfaction? Based on a wealth of statistical data as well as in-depth personal interviews, this book offers the most authoritative information ever about the real experiences of clergy women (and men), along with anecdotes that show what the life of American clergy today is really like.

"This excellent study contains primary data that will inform those who shape the future of Protestant leadership. This book is must reading for lay leaders, seminarians, clergy, and church executives." - Susie Stanley, Profissor of Historical theology, Messiah College.

"The statistics are illuminating and also sobering....This landmark study demonstrates that due to systemic factors, ordained ministry continues to be an uphill calling for women. It also demonstrates that clergy women are creatively expanding the definition and practice of ministry." --Catherine Wessinger, Associate Profissor of Religious Studies, Loyola University.

"Clergy Women: An Uphill Calling meets a great need for a contemporary study of clergy women....This book is essential for clergy and laity who wish deeper and wider understanding of the possibilities and challenges for women clergy and the ministry of the church in the 1990's and beyond. I offer my high commendation." - Barbara B. Troxell, Assistant Profissor of Practical Theology; Director of Field Education and Spiritual Formation, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.

"Women... now 'accepted' find it hard to assess the issues they will face that arise from being female and those that are common to both women and men entering this profession. This book gives them valuable information about structural issues and attitudes that will affect their ministries." - Lynn Rhodes, Associate Professor of Ministry and Field Education, Pacific School of Religion.

By Barbara Brown Zikmund (President, Hartford Seminary), Adair T. Lummis (researcher at the Center for Social and Religious Research at Hartford University) and Patricia Mei Yin Chang (researcher at the Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. 232 pp.

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