Writing "Beyond the Stained Glass Ceiling"

What happens when the "hoped-for future" of the church meets the lingering realities of its past? Drawing from her doctoral research and the lived experiences of Young Clergy Women International, Beyond the Stained Glass Ceiling by Rev. Dr. Alina Gayeuski pulls back the curtain on persistent sexism within religious institutions while offering a defiant, joyful vision for a new era of leadership. From the quiet focus of coffee shop booths to a deeply personal connection with her grandmother’s faith journey, this Q&A explores how hope and resistance can reshape our shared humanity.

What inspired your book? My fellow members and the alumnae of Young Clergy Women International were the biggest source of inspiration for me. I have the privilege of sharing many of their stories through my book. We are a generation of women clergy who have been called to be leaders in a church that has not fully embraced us. The church has a perception of how it has worked through the impacts of sexism, but the reality is far from that. Through my participation in YCWI, I continuously heard stories from my colleagues of the blatant sexism they were experiencing in the church. Their stories led me on a journey that has included a doctorate and now a book. But, much more importantly, their stories are a gift to the hoped for future of the church.

Do you have a moment when you realized “this needs to be a book?” The groundwork for this book is based on my doctoral research. When I was at my thesis defense, the faculty kept asking me questions about what this would look like as a book for a wider audience. I admit that I was much more focused on passing the panel and graduating than listening to their advice. But they persisted in encouraging me to continue thinking about it. I am grateful to have teachers that have never stopped teaching me–even, or especially, when I am resisting the lesson!

 What makes this book relevant today and different from other books on the subject? In following the flow of feminist history, we are at the start of the fourth wave. My book is part of the initial voices that are doing the truth-telling work of this new era. Studying feminist history has always inspired me to think about what attributes or contributions each generation has the ability to add to the work–and more importantly, what that work looks like for us today. I am grateful for the opportunity to be adding my voice, and those of many other clergy women, to this conversation.

 What do you want readers to take away from your book? Hope and joy are some of our greatest tools of resistance against the oppressive forces in this world. Despite the gravity of the topic of my book, the process of crafting a vision of what the future can hold inspired hope anew for me. My prayer is that it will extend to those who read it as well. Patriarchy wants to convince us that things will never be able to change. Our hope for what can be defies that lie and reorients us to the places we are being called to enact change in this world for the whole of our shared humanity.

 What are you reading now – for work, for fun, for personal growth? I love religious and spiritual memoirs. They are always my go-to books as I love hearing authors talk about the way that their faith and life are woven together. This style of writing is definitely a big inspiration for my own work as well. Currently I am reading two such books. This Lent my congregation is reading This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley and I am personally reading A Well Trained Wife by Tia Levings. While these are very different books, they both reveal a truth about the liberation we can find in our faith and in being true to ourselves; a liberation that is sometimes kept away from us by the church.

What is your writing process? What routines helped you create the time to create and write your book? I love writing in coffee shops. I am passionate about iced coffee, so if there is a place where I can find a delicious caramel iced coffee and tuck away in a booth, I can easily write for hours. There is a comfort in blocking out the noise around me and creating focus on my work that way. Writing in a public place also helps me remember that theology has real life implications–and I always want to keep that at the forefront of my writing.

If you could share this book with one person — past, present, or future — who would that be? My grandmother died during my first year of seminary, so sharing this book with her would be this incredible way of sharing my journey with her. But she also had an interesting religious path through her own life that would resonate with my work. She was raised in the Seventh Day Adventist Church and then was part of the Catholic Church through marriage and having children. She came to the Lutheran Church with my family during my childhood. She found a freedom in the tradition that spoke to her in ways that her previous experiences had not. She had the opportunity to watch women lead in the congregation in official roles and watch me grow into my own call as well. She was the very first person I told I wanted to go to seminary and she is the very first person I wish I could hand a copy of my book.