Jeanine Dorfman

Jeanine Dorfman

An "out" lesbian in the ordination process, who is being denied ordination.

I pray that this evil will end soon.

On Jan. 1, 1996, I took one of the earliest displays of stoles to St. Luke Presbyterian Church in Wayzata, MN.  St. Luke was one of the first benefactors of the Shower of Stoles Project (see stole #131 for details).  Jeanine's mother, Carrie Dorfman, is a member of St. Luke.

During the service, Jeanine's stole was laid on the communion table along with two large photos of Jeanine, one of her as an infant and the other taken recently of Jeanine wearing her stole, standing near a shoreline in upstate New York.

Just before the sermon, Carrie was invited to come forward and take a moment to talk about Jeanine's stole.  Carrie talked about the stole, and about the injustice of her daughter's having been denied ordination.  Finally, in tears, she took the picture of Jeanine wearing her stole, held it up over her head and said, "She should be a minister!  She should be wearing this stole!," and then she broke down sobbing.  Rev. Bill Chadwick, one of St. Luke's co-pastors, came over and held her for a few moments, and then accompanied Carrie to her seat.  Bill set aside his sermon notes; instead he returned to the communion table and said, "Sometimes the best words spoken are no words at all.  Let's just sit in silence for awhile."  And so we sat in silence -- a long, weighty silence broken only by the sound of quiet weeping throughout the room.  It was, as one parishioner said later, "the most powerful sermon I've ever heard."

Martha Juillerat
Founder, Shower of Stoles Project
2006