By Linda Bloom
Feb. 6, 2017 | NEW YORK (UMNS)

When a small group of young clergywomen joined an effort to provide a daily devotion to Hillary Clinton during the recent U.S. presidential campaign, they were looking to support a fellow United Methodist.

Photo: Rev. Jen Tyler, Wahpeton Evergreen UMC poses for a picture with Hilary Clinton at a luncheion held on January 31. Photo courtesy of Jen Tyler.

But they also created the #wepraywithher project as a way to acknowledge the work of Clinton and other women who have broken both glass ceilings and stained-glass ceilings.

Eventually, 116 women under 40 — elders, deacons, licensed local pastors — participated in the campaign, which started Sept. 1 and continued through the end of 2016, the organizers said.

“We wanted to do something that says thank you to the women who came before us because we know we are standing on their shoulders,” explained the Rev. Emily Peck-McClain, 36, an assistant professor at the seminary of Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and one of the organizers.

Peck-McClain and three others on the “wepraywithher” editorial team — the fifth was on a mission trip to Cambodia — attended a Jan. 31 lunch at the Interchurch Center in New York where Clinton greeted some of those who had written devotions for her.

The Rev. Bill Shillady, director of the United Methodist City Society and a pastoral friend of the Clinton family, arranged for the lunch and is in negotiations with Abingdon Press to publish a collection of the devotions for broader use.

Young women still get “pushback” over their personal and career choices, added Rev. Jen Tyler, Wahpeton Evergreen UMC. To have a woman, regardless of politics, as a nominee for president, she believes, “was a huge moment” for the country.

“It became a part of my daily devotional to read and pray through those (messages),” Tyler said. “While they were written specifically for Secretary Clinton, they were timely for all of us.” Clinton was secretary of state during the Obama Administration.

Read the full story here.