Beverly Jane Phillips

Before I reached the age of seventy-five it was easier to write my biography. I was born in Hastings, Nebraska, went to elementary school in Hastings, Nebraska, went to junior high and senior high in Hastings, Nebraska and went to Hastings College. Finally, after college I left my hometown and went to SanFrancisco to attend SanFrancisco Theological Seminary where I recevied a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1961. Several years after my graduation the same course of study was given the title, Master's Degree. I was one of the first women to receive the degree in the Presbyterian Church.

Norm Phillips, whom I met in seminary, and I were married in September, 1961. Not having a call to a church position I could not be ordained so I served as the minister's wife in parishes in northeast Nebraska and northeast Kansas. Then it was back to big city life in the Chicago suburb of Hanover Park. Twenty-eight years after I graduated from seminary I was ordained to be the Hunger Action Enabler for the Presbytery of Chicago. It took me so long because we adopted our two children, Jim and Nancy, and I was content being the minister's wife and the mother of two wonderful children who had chronic diseases, asthma and Type I diabetes.

Later I took the position of regional organizer for Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri for Bread for the World. In 1999 I retired from that position and my husband and I moved to Gilbert, Arizona.

In the 1980s I discovered feminist theology and biblical scholarship and began to identify myself as a Christian feminist theologian. My spiritual life and theology was enriched in 1997 when I read Elizabeth A. Johnson's book, She Who Is, the Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. Her book so changed my life that I wanted to write about her book to make it accessible to the women for whom I wrote retreats. The result was my first book, Learning a New Language, Speech About Women and God.

As that writing process came to fruition in the publication of Learning a New Language, I felt a pull to keep writing so I wrote From Heaven to My Heart, God's Journey With Me. For over thirty years I wrote my daily morning prayers in spiral notebooks. I knew there must be something in my experience that would help others on their prayer journeys. That knowledge has been confirmed as the readers of From Heaven to My Heart share with me what is happening on their prayer journeys as they read my book.