A day in the life of an interfaith minister...
So many people think interfaith ministry is about being a celebrant... so these posts aim to paint a picture of how ministry permeates all of my life...
Today started early... well, early for me... maybe not for you! 6am. I've taught lots of people to meditate over the past few years and for those who want to remain in regular contact... to get a wee nudge with their meditation practice... I host the Motivated to Meditate Club. Its a FB group with daily posts and regular zoom calls where we meditate together. This morning's zoom was 6.15am. I feel this and my meditation teaching have become part of my ministry... perhaps they always were, I just didn't refer to them that way.
Midweek I work for Women's Aid as a support worker. It was the first new ministry that called me after starting my ministry training. A friend came up to me in the cinema one evening and asked if I was still looking for a job as there was one coming up at Women's Aid... that was the first time I ran away from it! Then the job description popped up on my Facebook, I looked but it was too many hours... although I did message to say I'd be interested in it as a job share. Nothing came of it, until another friend mentioned it months later saying it was being offered as a job share. Interested I looked into it again, but found a whole load of reasons I couldn't do it (still running away!), until I met with the person who was job sharing the role and she blew all my objections out of the water! Still with a lot of fear around the role, I applied, thinking if it was meant to be I'd get it... otherwise I wouldn't. I remember on the day of the interview, choosing the crystals to put in my pockets to support and ground me, before I even chose what I was wearing! I was just beginning, in my ministry journey, to connect with the Divine Feminine and the Goddess... so calling in her support, I got in the car to drive to the interview and pulled out behind a car with registration... SH3 LVE ...do you see it? The Goddess at work? I got the job and have been there nearly 2 years.
And so midweek my ministry takes the shape of support work for women experiencing domestic abuse. I think of ministry as 'walking alongside' and this role is just that... walking alongside women on their journey in abuse and recovery from abuse. It's for sure the toughest job I've ever done (despite paying the least)... When I first started I felt pathetic that I struggled to even hear the stories these amazing women were living. Although the emotional support is still hard, often the most difficult part of my job these days is advocating for women in a system that in many ways doesn't support them... constantly battling and not getting anywhere feels pretty soul destroying some days. So, as always, hoping today isn't one of those days...
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Thanks for reading... would love to hear any thoughts you have in the comments... Are these posts of interest? Do you have specific questions about what it means to be an interfaith minister? Questions about ministry?
♡ Jo
