From the editor: On Mondays this month we’re sharing personal stories of Christian women who identify in some way as feminists. We hope that hearing these stories will broaden our understanding and give us a fuller context in which to have conversations about equality in the Church.

“Not long ago, for the first time, I used the word ‘feminist’ to describe myself. Not because something radical has changed about what I believe about women and men, but because I’ve realized that I’m no longer interested in hiding from a word in order to avoid other people’s ideas about that word. Of course, it’s not quite fair to say that nothing has changed. I listened to classmates declare that they have gotten “Him’d” out of male depictions for God. I announced my intention to refer to the Holy Spirit as ‘she’ instead of ‘he’ or ‘it.’ ‘You’re one of those people,’ responded a friend.”