Found an unpublished blog entry from June.

20 years ago I came to my first collegial gathering with the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association.  It was a different world then.  Children were outliers and ministers with children and especially young children, had to scramble to get childcare, to silence children, and to seem as hungrily ambitious and laser-like, aimed for the ministry as our non- parenting cohorts.  The conversation had started but not yet made significant inroads.

This year our opening worship at our UUMA annual meeting included a child dedication.  It was beautiful to see all the little children and to affirm them as our common care and concern.  I wondered how differently it would have been for my daughter (and me) had there been support like that when I started out — and it wasn’t that long ago.  I imagine that there are a lot of minister parents who worked on this.  Women who didn’t want to be sidelined for having children– and men who wanted their time with their children taken seriously by their faith tradition, their colleagues, and their congregations.

I imagine that, in the long run, there will be happier clergy families, happier Preacher’s Kids, and a healthier movement if we can keep this recognition alive.  We have come a long way, babies.