Diana Elizabeth Carroll
Poet. Pastor. Priest.
I’ve been a writer ever since I could first hold a pencil and form letters on a page. Journals, poetry, short stories, letters, to-do lists… Whenever I have wanted to remember or reflect on something, I have always jotted it down. When I started college, I was convinced that I would become a professional writer. I even majored in English with a creative writing concentration (and a second major in German, but that’s another story).
Then, near the end of my first year of college, a different vocation began to take shape. I began to discern a calling to the priesthood, which was not all that surprising to anyone who knew me. I grew up in the Episcopal Church, and my grandfather and two great-grandfathers were all ministers. I am one of those unusual people who never left the church of my youth or even went through a rebellious stage where I wanted to sleep in on Sunday mornings. Church was woven into the fabric of my life, and so when I began to think about my own gifts and what God might want me to do with them, the priesthood made perfect sense.
My journey in ministry has not been simple or straightforward, however. At the same time as discerning my calling to the priesthood, I was also discerning my sexuality, which does not fit neatly into a heterosexual box. When pressed for a label, I call myself bisexual, though I recognize that term is problematic, as it assumes there are only two sexes or genders. These days, it’s simpler to identify myself as a cisgender woman who is married to another cisgender woman. My wife Sarah is also a priest, and I’m sure the story of our three weddings will be the subject of several blog posts at some point. The main thing to know is that she is English, but because the Church of England does not allow clergy to marry someone of the same gender, we lived and ministered in the United States for 12 years. (We are now living back in England and taking a break from active priestly ministry, which is another story waiting to be told.)
In some ways, I have never stopped writing, but the form of my writing has changed over the years. When I was younger, I journaled and wrote poetry constantly, as well as crafting papers for school, then college, then seminary. After being ordained, most of my writing energy was channeled into sermons, church newsletter articles, and social media posts. In early 2021, for the first time in over 15 years, poems suddenly started popping into my head on a daily basis again. I started this blog after a poem called “But Lent” went modestly viral. Having found my voice in ministry, in prophetic witness, in justice work, and in personal expression, it felt like the right time to start sharing my words with a wider audience. Thank you for joining me on this journey.
Blessings,
Diana
Diana Elizabeth Carroll 