Tuesday, December 11, 2018

CONVERSATIONS: LIBBY GILCHRIST, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND AUTHOR

From Australia-

One of Australia's first female Anglican priests when she was ordained in 2005, LIBBY GILCHRIST has recently written a book about her "journey to priesthood" The Tapestry: One Woman's Journey to Priesthood. Having retired in 2010 and now an honorary associate priest at Sorrento/Rye Anglican Parish in Melbourne, the 68-year-old, who with husband Stuart has three children and six grandchildren, speaks about why she decided to write it, the challenges she’s faced on her journey and why it’s important to have women in church leadership…
 
Congratulations on the book. What made you decide to write it? 
 
"Initially I felt the need to write simply to come to grips with the different facets of my journey to priesthood, the difficulties as well as the joys. It is not a history so much as the story of my own personal journey."

Why now?  

 
"I began to write when I retired in 2010. It took me over a year to write the basic story, and then several more years to review and edit it. Once at this point I was encouraged by many people to try to have it published so that the present and coming generations of women, and men, within the church might have some understanding about the history of women’s leadership in the church. It was also so that women and men outside the church may gain an insight into a wider perspective of the often different and difficult path that women are faced with in their life’s journeys. The further years of review were important as they allowed for a process of 'composting' - that is, after some years of retirement, to look hard at what I had written and how I had written it, trying to make sure that it expressed what I wanted and needed to say."


More here-

https://www.sightmagazine.com.au/columns/conversations/10949-conversations-libby-gilchrist-anglican-priest-and-author

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