Rev. Kit Lonergan’s Response…
Our visiting clergy are asked to respond to a quick question every year.
This summer, the question is: “If you were not an Episcopal priest, what other profession/calling might you have pursued?”
If I were not serving as an Episcopal priest, there is a good chance that I would be a high school teacher—it’s what I did for the first few years after college and what I initially went to Divinity School to study—how to teach World Religions and incorporate elements of religious history and understanding into the curriculum.
Now, if I weren’t wed to something that I had already done as a vocation and open to something which might be fun—I have a strange dream of writing copy for greeting cards. I recall Hallmark once having a ‘Fresh Ink’ subsidiary, and their cards were odd, whimsical (for Hallmark), and strangely alluring to me. I once thought to myself, I can come up with some weird things to say, maybe that’s my fallback plan. Barring all of that, when asked what I do, and I’m not in the mood to get into the entire ‘I preach Jesus crucified and risen’ conversation (such as when on a plane), I usually just say that I’m in sales and marketing. And when I’m feeling that greeting card whimsical pull, I add that ‘I am in sales for a carpenter.