What is Young Clergy Women International?!

Young Clergy Women International (YCWI) is a network of the youngest ordained clergy women across the world, defined as those under forty.

YCWI started out as The Young Clergy Women Project (TYCWP) in November 2006. It was a simple idea to begin with, aiming at just getting young, ordained women together to talk online and publish their stories of ministry.

Then, in 2007, TYCWP received a grant from The Louisville Institute that supported our preaching conference, board meetings, and starter website. Energy keeps rolling, and these initial funded programs have generated more and more young clergy women to connect with each other.

Our energy initially led TYCWP/YCWI to publish an e-magazine, which was (and is!) by, for, and about young clergy women. This publication, now known as Fidelia, began on October 1, 2007. As a community that began through the network of a series of bloggers, founders were eager to share our stories all in one place.

In building online community, YCWI’s founding members soon found that their relationships flourished even more when they gathered in person. As YCWI has evolved over the years, we seek to offer annual opportunities for young clergy women to gather at our conferences, and through smaller organic cohorts, regional and national gatherings have also formed. We have been grateful for the support of many supporters including the Center for Congregational Health.

While we know that we cannot provide a place for every young clergy woman, YCWI has identified the need for nurture and support of those that are discerning a call into the ministry. To this end, we created On the Road to Ordination to encourage those pursuing the ministry. In addition, those who have reached 40 years of age are automatically inducted into the deeply connected alumnae group.

  • The Young Clergy Women Project (TYCWP) – now Young Clergy Women International (YCWI) – was the brain-child of the Rev. Susan Olson, who describes her passion for connecting and supporting young clergy women this way:

    “My interest in the project is both professional and personal. Professionally, I work at a theological school, and am interested in ways to make transitions to ministry smoother for my students and others. Also, my first masters degree was in the social sciences, and I enjoy the research aspect of the project.

    On the personal end, I was ordained in my twenties, and remember the searing isolation of those years. Things have changed, but many of the same things are issues for young women. I have stood, and continue to stand, on the mighty broad shoulders of first generation ordained young women, and for that I am grateful. If I can do even a bit of the same, I would count it as joy.”

    Susan wrote and managed the grant from Louisville Institute, the funding that allowed TYCWP to establish a web presence and sponsor its first two conferences, until the grant expired in December 2008.

    The members of YCWI are exceedingly grateful for Susan’s initial energy and leadership!

Our Community

We are our members. The young clergy women that join our project make us the dynamic group we are. Our membership includes:

  • Over 2,200 young clergy women in number.

  • Women from across the U.S., as well as women who call Australia, Canada, Nigeria, Sweden, Mexico, and the UK (Scotland, Wales, and England), home.

  • Women serving in these denominations:
    African Methodist Episcopal (AME), Anglican (Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, Australia), Assemblies of God, Baptist (American, National, Cooperative, Alliance, and Australian), Church of Sweden, Church of the Brethren, Church of the Nazarene, Christian Reformed Church, Cumberland Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, The Episcopal Church, ELCA, ELCC, Moravian, Mennonite, Pan African Orthodox Christian, PCUSA, Presbyterian Church of Canada, Church of Scotland, Quaker, Reformed Church in America, Roman Catholic, Scottish Episcopal, Swedenborgian, United Church of Canada, United Church of Christ, United Methodist, United Reformed Church, Uniting Church in Australia, and Unitarian-Universalist

YCWI seeks to provide members with opportunities for online relationship-building and wisdom-sharing.  Our members are invited to share in a private community with other young clergy women in our hidden Facebook group. Our public-facing social media (Facebook | Instagram | X | Bluesky | LinkedIn) pages further provide members and friends of YCWI with the opportunity to catch up on the latest news.

We encourage our members to gather together in their area for regional meet-ups. We offer support and nurture in-person meet-ups gatherings in local churches, at coffee shops and at denominational events.  In these gatherings, our members meet for coffee or a meal and transition their online connections into real-life friendships.

YCWI also offers community to those young women discerning a call into the ministry. On the Road to Ordination is an online network of support for young women seminarians as well as those who have graduated and are waiting for judicatory approval or their first call. In short, it’s for those in that liminal period of waiting on ordination. Women who are On the Road are welcome to join with members of YCWI for conferences and any in-person meet-ups. Only the online communities are separate. We are excited to welcome On the Road members into membership in YCWI once they’ve completed their denomination’s ordination or licensing requirements.