December 19, 2009

What Child IS This? Mary Cartledge-Hayes, 1985. All rights reserved.


 My friend Claire just sent me a message on facebook saying she couldn't find a copy of this piece anywhere in her house and wants to use it in a sermon tomorrow.

This story first appeared in the Winter 1985 issue of the Christian feminist journal Daughters of Sarah. One Sunday I was tracked down in Sunday school; there was a phone call for me in the church office.  The editor of The Witness (Mary Lou...  Mary Ann... Somebody help me here) had just read the story and wanted to use it as the editorial for their Ash Wednesday/beginning of Lent issue. (Hadn't thought of it that way, had you?)  The story appeared in The Witness, Vol. 68, No. 2, Feb. 1985. Other lore surrounding this piece is that somebody almost fell off a bus in Chicago when she read it.  Nancy Hardesty became one of my dearest friends when we met at a conference and, over the closing meal, I told her I'd had some things published in Daughters. She asked some questions, and I mentioned the story about Jesus being born a girl.  She immediately teared up and said, "I love that story."  And here it is, almost 25 years later and as new and relevant now as when I wrote it.

Copyright 1985. All rights reserved.

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