Walkin’ in Memphis

Unlike the 1990s song by Marc Cohn, “Walking in Memphis,” I did not don my blue suede shoes before boarding my plane, nor did I touch down in the land of the delta blues in the middle of the pouring rain. Instead, I wore my favorite pair of professional-looking Rothy’s and my first experience of Memphis was a sunny, eighty-degree day in late April. The pouring rain came a few days later.

I was still walking in Memphis, with 24 other church-wide lay leaders. 

With the scent of honeysuckle in the air in the woods outside, we spent four days together in the cool of Southern air conditioning talking and learning from each other at St. Columba, the camp and retreat center for the Diocese of Western Tennessee. Bookended by great coffee in the morning and board-game playing in the evening, our days were full of sharing and listening. 

We listened to each other’s stories of ministry; we supported each other as we fine-tuned and more deeply discerned our particular calls; we struggled with what it means to be a lay leader in the church. And through it all, we learned from each other’s contexts: West Coast, East Coast, the South, and Midwest. Together we wondered how our stories of ministry might influence each other and take on new, and very different, lives in the contexts to which we would return. 

Yet—the tasks and the ministry building we would return to, I would return to, felt much smaller to me, because Gathering of Leaders reminded me that I’m not alone. I have a group of colleagues and peers who are called to ministry, who are called to ministry as lay leaders.

As I said goodbye on the last day, it didn’t feel like goodbye. I got into my airport shuttle feeling like I would see many of these 24 lay leaders again, maybe at the next gathering but definitely over email, when I had a question or a new project to share. This time in Memphis was only a start. 

The drive over, I opened the car door at the airport and sweltering heat met me instead of the pouring rain. My driver handed me my luggage and I passed through the white, lotus-shaped pillars of the airport. Marc Cohn was right—I do have a prayer in Memphis. Well, more than a prayer. Now I also have a network of creative, passionate colleagues who love the church and are dedicated to its work and its ministries.

Sarah Louise Woodford is the Canon for Communications & Media, The Episcopal Church in Connecticut (ECCT) and attended the Memphis Lay Leader Gathering in April of 2024.