She Flies On

Carter Heyward graduated from Union Theological Seminary in New York City (MA 1971, MDiv 1973, PhD 1980), Danforth Scholar, 1978-80. She was among the first group of women ordained in Philadelphia in 1974. Heyward taught at Episcopal Divinity School, 1975-2005, and has been honored with distinguished Alumae Awards from Randolph Macon Woman's College and Union Theological Seminary. She lives in Cedar Mountain, North Carolina.

“What joy emanates from reading this book! For me, Carter Heyward has always been the most creative, resourceful, intelligent, and, yes, whimsical theologian I have ever encountered, and She Flies On bears witness to this truth. Whether the radical relationality of God is expressed through the Trinity or a sepia picture of six-year-old Carter gazing at a turtle with the shadow of the photographer noticed only later in life, this autobiographic refl ection is stunning. Written with great intimacy and courageous honesty, this book challenges the reader to stretch her or his thinking about God, the world, and the mystical network of relationships in which we all exist. I am profoundly grateful that Carter wrote this book, and when you read it, I think you will be too!” —The Rt. Rev. Mary D. Glasspool Bishop Assistant, The Episcopal Diocese of New York “Carter Heyward’s writing makes me uncomfortable. She stretches my sense of what is included in theological thinking: our bodies, our confusion, our animal friends? Carter has been telling us for decades that God is alive and in relationship with us and through us. I fi rst read her work in 1990 and found in it fresh and challenging language for God as verb, with us now, and demanding, a faith I wanted for myself. “In her memoir, Carter tells us stories of her life as theologian, priest, and activist within the framework of the Trinity, God in relationship. Reading these refl ections at the end of her career: justice-love, right-relation, and mutuality seem as radical today as they did when I fi rst encountered them. Prepare to be uncomfortable and wonder if that too is of God.” —Winnie Varghese, author, Church Meets World