Read a 2008 Christian Chronicle article about the decline in attendance of New England pulpits and the struggle of working with small communities for clergy members.

Read a Jan. 31, 2013 Catholic News Service story discussing woman priesthood and responses that have been evoked by the debate.

Read a May 13, 2013 National Catholic Register article about the clergy sex abuse scandals and its effects on the community of clergy men and women.

Read a May 22, 2013 Huffington Post article about the Vatican’s order to change parts of the traditional prayers and rubrics of Mass. A survey showed that 60 percent of priests were dissatisfied with the change.

Leon J. Podles, who lives in Baltimore and in Naples, Fla., wrote The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity (Spence, 1999).

Marcia Y. Riggs is J. Erskine Love Professor of Christian Ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga. She wrote Plenty Good Room: Women Versus Male Power in the Black Church (Pilgrim Press, 2003).

Sally Moran of Charleston, S.C., is the author of a 2004 print-on-demand book, Women of the Covenant: The Case for Female Roman Catholic Priests.

Kenneth Carder is professor of the practice of pastoral formation at Duke University, Durham, N.C., and senior fellow of Pulpit & Pew. He is a United Methodist bishop.

Cynthia Woolever is director of U.S. Congregations in Louisville, Ky., a religious research group that is conducting the U.S. Congregational Life Survey.