Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Life as a Clergy Wife

Might be time to start writing about being a clergy wife. The politically correct moniker is, of course, clergy spouse but that screws with the rhyme and rhythm of this headline: Life as a Clergy Wife.

My public musing about blogging on this topic brought immediate enthusiastic feedback from Twitter-based wags. The broadly ecumenical response included this from a Catholic pal, "ex-seminarians would love to hear your side of the story!!!" (Exclamation points all his.)

For a while I wondered if I'd have anything to say on the subject. After all, my husband isn't a parish priest or rector or vicar. He's a canon (Episcopal church equivalent of a Catholic church monsignor) who serves on a bishop's staff and goes to work at a diocesan center every day.  And while he does seem to be stuck blessed with "Sunday supply" a lot, I'm neither expected nor required to attend.* Nevertheless, a whole new world of twisted identity has opened up. Woo-hoo!

Being married to a priest sure is -- how shall I put it -- interesting. Stay tuned for more. I'm tempted to begin by writing about shopping for clothes. His, I mean . . . his.


*Does that make me a crappy clergy wife? I feel a blog post coming on about the unexpectedly poignant experience of the first time I witnessed my husband preside and preach.