Pastor Frank at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, Wilmette, IL New Year’s Day 2024

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic I whiled away my time looking up information about my life and writing some stories down. I had about 200,000 words for a memoir by 2024. It was too much to dare to send it to a publisher, and maybe too uninteresting for the general reader. So, I began to fashion some of it into a manageable narrative about that centered on my interest in liturgy (my academic field) and my pastoral ministries in five congregations over forty years, as well as teaching liturgy in seminaries and universities, being involved in the transition of The Liturgical Conference and the founding and leadership of a pastoral society. It includes tales from my early years and what I have done in my retirement—both of which may be the ost interesting parts of my book. What emerged is Pastoral Liturgist: A Narrative. It was published as such by Resource Publications of Wipf and Stock in Eugene, OR by the end of 2025. I think it could be good read for pastors and laypeople and maybe my professional colleagues in the field of liturgy.

I include here reviews by a theologian, a lay person who is a published novelist (unsolicited), and a pastor of a progressive congregation and podcaster whom I have known (also unsolicited.) Their assessments may encourage you to buy and read it. It available from Wipf & Stock Publications or Amazon.

First, a Catholic theologian from the endorsements on the back cover:

Christian liturgy only exists in the practice of persons, communities, ordained leaders and varied ministries in real-life times and places. With this memoir the highly respected theological scholar, teacher, and minister Frank Senn has generously integrated his formidable knowledge with a disarmingly transparent account of his life to demonstrate how participation and reflection on one’s ecclesial worship is of a piece with one’s entire life as the worship of God.

─Bruce T. Morrill, S.J. Edward A. Malloy, Chair of Roman Catholic Studies, Vanderbilt University Divinity School.

Second, by a published novelist:

Dear Frank,

I wanted to take a moment to personally reach out and thank you for the depth of reflection, pastoral honesty, and vocational generosity that shape Pastoral Liturgist. This narrative offers a rare and quietly compelling account of a life formed at the intersection of liturgical scholarship, parish ministry, and faithful attentiveness to change over time.

What stands out most is the way you allow liturgy to emerge not as theory alone, but as lived practice. Your reflections on forty years of parish ministry across five congregations reveal how worship is shaped by context, community, and pastoral discernment. Rather than presenting liturgy as fixed or abstract, you show how it grows through relationship, teaching, and patient care for the people entrusted to it.

Your account of ministry beyond the parish, through seminary teaching, leadership within the Liturgical Conference, and the founding of a pastoral society, adds further texture to the narrative. These chapters underscore a lifelong commitment to sustaining both the intellectual and practical life of the church, often through work that is unseen but essential.

The later chapters, addressing retirement, global teaching, family life, embodied spiritual practice, and public witness, are especially moving. Your openness about officiating at your son’s marriage, participating in pride events, living as a cancer survivor, and embracing practices such as yoga reflects a pastoral imagination that continues to widen rather than contract. Faith here is presented as something dynamic and resilient, capable of holding tradition and transformation together.

This is a book that will resonate deeply with pastors, liturgists, and readers who have spent a lifetime negotiating faithfulness within changing ecclesial and social landscapes. It offers not a blueprint, but a testimony to vocation sustained through curiosity, courage, and care.

Thank you for writing with such clarity and generosity, and for offering a narrative that honors both the discipline and the humanity of pastoral life. I truly appreciate the care with which this work was written and would welcome the opportunity to continue this conversation.

With genuine admiration and warm regards,
Sally Rooney

Third, by Pastor Clint Schnekloth of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Fayetteville, AR.

Somewhat early in my life as a pastor I was a member of the Society of the Holy Trinity. It was an “order” to which you subscribed, committing to liturgical retreats and mutual visitation among other forms of the prayer offices.

Frank Senn was the senior of the order, and is a liturgical historian I have read often.

About two years into my participation in the order, some leaders in the organization took a decidedly anti-queer stance. At one retreat the preacher spoke a wildly homophobic sermon and I knew I would need to unsubscribe from the order.

I sat after the service and simply wept. Frank Senn sat next to me, quietly, with much care.

We have since then been on different journeys, his now a life in retirement. But he has made some rather radical and public moves toward queer pride and inclusion. When he published this memoir I knew I would need to read it, and I have been finding it a real balm, healing for the soul.

Senn and I have reconnected via Substack over the past couple of years and I plan to host him on the blog for conversation in the new year. But for right now I am simply astounded by the simple vulnerability and honesty he brings in this book. It is a gift. It will change hearts.