Coming Alive is a vibrant and inspiring memoir that follows your journey through life and the obstacles you faced. Why was this an important book for you to write?

I began writing this book to tell stories of my life which I often did in the sermons I preached in churches which brought understanding and laughter to others. I wrote for the joy of expression and appreciation for life itself. It was important to share my voice as a gay woman pastor, counselor, and artist to empower others and to show how as part of my generation I changed people’s ideas and prejudices.

I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?

It was hard to write about family: to freely tell “my” story without the shame and secrecy of the decades I lived through in a close-knit large extended Italian-American family. It was also the story of my older gay brother who was born in 1938 and moved to the West Coast to free himself but who never quite healed and died of AIDS.

What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this memoir?

1. Be a seeker. Go outside your comfort zone and explore life fully. Astrology, psychotherapy, religious life, arts, and education were foundational for me.
2. Do your part to be the change you wish to see in the world as Gandhi counseled. I was called to change others through my work as a pastoral counselor, artist, and LGBTQ advocate especially influencing congregations in my midst.
3. Be a warrior for love in all its forms. Whatever hopes I aspired to as a young girl reading “Little Woman,” to be myself, to be an artist and writer, to love people, family, and others. They still inform me and are as relevant as ever in today’s world.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from your book?

I hope my readers feel joy and humor in reading “Coming Alive.” I hope it brings new insights into embracing the possibilities in living with integrity while needing to embrace paradox.

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While standing on the seminary altar in Cambridge next to the first ordained Episcopal woman priest, Anne Ierardi was touched by the Spirit with an extraordinary call to ordination. In her inspiring and engaging memoir, Coming Alive, Ierardi writes of her efforts to honor her identity as a Catholic woman while integrating her call to the Protestant ministry. Along the way she invites us into her Italian family, studies art in Italy, and comes out in Boston. She falls in love with a doctor at an astrology party, and together they birth a healing ministry, bringing together people of diverse beliefs and backgrounds. Ierardi recounts her many callings to live as an artist, counselor, and minister while facing challenges in the early days of gay, feminist, and religious change. A story of courage, persistence, and authenticity, Coming Alive will speak to people of all ages and experiences, providing hope and possibilities for living and loving well.