Coming Alive

While standing on the seminary altar in Cambridge next to the first ordained Episcopal woman priest, Anne Ierardi was touched by the Spirit with an extraordinary power: a call to ordination. Could she leave Catholicism, the faith of her childhood, and find a home in a new church? Could she be assertive and holy enough as a leader without going back into the closet? In her inspiring memoir, Coming Alive, Ierardi recounts how she lived through the early days of gay, feminist, and religious liberation, facing cultural, gender, and sexual orientation prejudices. Along the way she survived losses in her extended Italian family and found her voice as an artist. A story of courage, persistence, and authenticity, Coming Alive will speak to people of diverse faith and cultural backgrounds-including "spiritual not religious," LGBTQ, women, artists, therapists-providing inspiration for our journeys through time, identity, and development.