ABSTRACT
I want to outline an autobiographical process, that is, parts of my life that have contributed to patterns and movement within it. My journey into female friendship and loving, into questioning the values, purpose and commitment with which I was being asked to live and carry my life, pre-dated all my interest in organized religion. However, both were easily colonized by the patriarchal structures of the Anglican church, not least because it purported to take my awakening adolescent guilt and creative energy to make something good of them. Perhaps I recognized the threat at an early age, for I recall refusing to get confirmed at the anglo-catholic church up the road when I was ten or eleven. Instead I got my mother to agree to send me to a strongly evangelical church a much longer walk away, and what I remember valuing most about it was the peoplecentredness of its life.
