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November 19, 2006
Sister...
Twenty-five years ago, Andrea Jaeger was the brat of the women's tennis tour. While rising to No. 2 in the world, she tells PEOPLE she sometimes screamed at linesmen and was standoffish to competitors.
Cut to the present: The former tennis star, surrounded by a gaggle of young cancer survivors, strolls the halls of Cincinnati Children's Hospital. At each room the gang stops and belts a splendidly off-key version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." In their beds, other kids giggle.
Jaeger's worldview has changed dramatically: On. Sept. 16 the former tennis terror became, officially, Sister Andrea, an Anglican Dominican nun. Now 41, she has dedicated her life to the care of kids in need, visiting hospitals and running camps for kids with cancer.
Sister Andrea says that even when she was on the tour, there was a more spiritual soul lurking beneath. She says she always felt that "God had a plan" for her.
The last time I was at the Christian Booksellers' Association convention, she was there, signing - the line was pretty long, though, so I didn't get a book...
Posted by Amy Welborn | Permalink
Comments
I didn't know the Anglicans had Dominican nuns!
Posted by: Eileen R at Nov 19, 2006 2:04:20 PM
They have a number of orders modeled on the Catholic. Most of them got started in the 1800's during the heyday of Anglo-Catholicism. Here's a partial list:
http://anglicansonline.org/resources/orders.html
Posted by: Christopher Johnson at Nov 19, 2006 2:54:31 PM
I thought the Anglican orders weren't valid?
Posted by: dymphna at Nov 19, 2006 3:05:20 PM
I think that applies to the priesthood.
Posted by: melissa at Nov 19, 2006 4:11:57 PM
Her story is a beautiful one. I happened to read chunks of her book a year or so ago while in a bookstore. She had a sizeable amount of cash from her tennis winnings when an injury ended her career. She decided to devote her life to God and children with cancer, and donated her money toward helping children with cancer.
Posted by: Dan at Nov 20, 2006 12:10:56 PM
I didn't know that the Anglicans had nuns, either. Do do similar things to Catholic nuns? Or--dare I ask--are they more liberal? I guess the Anglicans worry me a bit, that's all. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Posted by: DK at Nov 20, 2006 2:45:23 PM
The Cowley Fathers, high-church Episcopalians, have a monastery on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Mass. I sang in a choir at one of their services years ago.
Posted by: RP Burke at Nov 20, 2006 4:37:37 PM
