Confessions of a Girl Priest: How a Girl From Ohio landed at Harvard Divinity School and Came Out Ordained - eBook

Filled with humor, insight, and faith, this true story tells how one young woman overcame challenges, stereotypes, and personal struggles at Harvard Divinity School and emerged an ordained minister.

Filled with humor, insight, and faith, this true story tells how one woman overcame challenges, stereotypes, and personal struggles at Harvard Divinity School and emerged an ordained minister.

As a bright young girl from Ohio, Andrea Raynor always wanted to be a doctor. Instead, she landed— almost by accident—at Harvard Divinity School, which, she quickly discovered, was no typical semi­nary. When she attended, in the 1980s, HDS was a place overflowing with creative expression and freedom of thought. Her classmates included two men who were undergoing sex changes and a woman who fancied herself a geisha. There was a lively gay and lesbian caucus, marches on Washington, civil disobedience, and more sexual intrigue than could be found in a stereotypical college fraternity house.

Providing a bird’s-eye view of life within the hallowed halls (and beneath the crimson robes), Incognito is a humorous and poignant glimpse inside one of the nation’s most revered institutions. It begins with the long drive from Ohio to Cam­bridge and ends at the bedside of a dying young woman. But the real story is about the challenges, surprises, and ultimately life-changing experi­ences Andrea faced on the road to understanding God’s call for her life. From navigating relation­ships to exploring whether a pretty girl can truly wear a collar, Incognito tackles our assumptions about spirituality, the church, morality, and identity, and affirms that God often works in ways—and in people—we least expect.