Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway

Her expertise in capturing the essence of women’s attitudes toward love, romance, dating and men in the early ninties led her to getting hired as the Editor in Chief of Playgirl. But how did a one time Playgirl editor find herself on the path to becoming a minister?

Her father’s illness and subsequent death in 1997 was the difficult experience that gifted her with a new –and quite unexpected – career. Due to complex family issues, she became his health proxy during a serious illness and the person responsible for his burial when he passed.

“Because of tricky family dynamics and the fact that he was not a religious man, I ended up organizing his funeral myself,” she recalls. “Two special friends helped arrange a healing ritual for my family and I wrote and delivered his Eulogy. We did it right at the graveside. I played Danny Boy and asked everyone to share a story. My uncle brought a minister with him to the funeral, but I wouldn’t let him say anything until the very end.”

“After the funeral the minister, Rev. Hector, called me over. I thought he was going to scold me for doing something sacrilegious. Instead, he said: ‘Have you every thought of becoming a minister?’”

“I hadn’t … but in doing my father’s funeral I was reminded that in his younger days he was a healer. I wanted to take on his healing mantle, but did not quite know how."

"Suddenly, it seemed reasonable. It was a matter of hearing the right words at the right time.”

That is how I "got the call" to ministry. I consider it my father's parting gift to me.

Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway’s first career was in journalism.

She began as advice columnist, crime reporter and features editor for Brooklyn Paper Publications (now an award winning chain of newspapers) and went on to become a widely published journalist, with thousands of her articles in newspapers and magazine around the world.

Prior to her ordination as an interfaith minister in 1999, she spent two decades investigating, experiencing and reporting on a wide range of “women's issues” and for a long time specialized in writing about romance, sexuality, self-esteem, relationship dynamics, health and spirituality.

In her very colorful career in media she was Editor-in-Chief of two national magazines -- Playgirl as well as Single Living Magazine. For 15 years she served as Manhattan Bureau Chief and then Managing Editor of Women’s News. She was founder and editor of Star Reporter News Service, through which she syndicated her stories to top dailies around the country.

Her articles have appeared hundreds of newspapers and magazines, including: NY Daily News, Newsday, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, Denver Post, Chicago Sun-Times and many other major dailies. She also wrote for New Woman, Ladies’ Home Journal, Woman’s World, Bridal Guide, Young Miss, Child, Family Fun, Success and, yes, Star Magazine. Prior to the Internet, her work was also syndicated internationally via Reuters and London features.

She wrote her first article for the Humanist Magazine at Fiorello LaGuardia College, where she went on to become Editor-in-Chief of her school newspaper, Fiorello's Flute, for two years. As a student intern, she worked for a literary agent, National Lampoon Magazine and for the brand new Brooklyn Paper, where she later got her first newspaper job. That was where she discovered her passion for being a reporter. Her very first assignment was to try to get an exclusive with a madam in a "cat house."

It was always her dream to also write books. She taught herself how to do that by editing saucy novels for a small publishing company, and then penning a few of her own. In 1991, her first book, a novel, was published, on the same day her son was born. The book has been out of print for years. The son is AWESOME and already training in journalism and broadcast.

She has since edited and ghostwritten about 35 books. working with doctors and experts to help put their ideas on paper. She has also published about 13 her own books including:

The Couples Guide To Great Sex Over 40 (Masquerade Books, 1996); Network Your Way To Endless Romance: Secrets To Help You Meet The Mate of Your Dreams(with Bog Burg, Samark, 1997);
How to Seduce a Man (Citadel, 1997); Release the Seductress Within (Gramercy/Random House 2004).

She began to gently shift her writing to a more spiritual focus in 1997 – writing more about true love, soul mates, spirituality, the goddess within, and weddings. Her more recent books include:

• Goddess Pages: A Divine Guide to Love and Happiness (Llewellyn, November 2008)

• Pet Prayers and Blessings: Ceremonies and Celebrations to Share with the Pets Your Love (co-authored with husband Victor Fuhrman, Sterling, August 5, 2008)

• Wedding Goddess: A Divine Guide to Transforming Wedding Stress to Wedding Bliss (Penguin Books, May 2005)

• A Goddess Is A Girl's Best Friend: A Divine Guide to Finding Love, Success and Happiness (Penguin Books, 2002)

• Find Your Spiritual Soulmate: Transform You Romantic Destiny with a Romantic Resume (Self Healing Expressions, 2001)

Easing from one career to another was a challenge – financially, emotionally, spiritually. She felt it was something she was called to do.

Journalism had been her soul job since college … yet she was ready to incorporate more spirituality into her every day life and her every day work. She had covered some of the major stories that changed the world, and she was ready to be in a different role … of being there for the most significant moments in the lives of the individual people, the couples and the families she would serve.

Returning to school at 40, she entered The New Seminary in New York, the first institution for the training of interfaith ministers. It specializes in helping to facilitate an understanding interfaith and all-faith spirituality, and the concept that people can commune with the divine in many ways and styles.

Trained in the tenets and rituals of many of the world’s religions, she graduated and was ordained as an interfaith minister in 1999.

She took a vow to serve people of all faiths and backgrounds.

One of her first passions in seminary was the study of the Divine Feminine in all the world’s religions. She was enthralled to find goddesses in almost every tradition.

After years of writing about women’s issues with self worth, she began to see that including the feminine divine in our understanding of divinity might help women feel better about them selves! Her research into this area became the basis for her first book on the topic, A Goddess Is a Girl’s Best Friend and later the new and revised, Goddess Pages.

Between years of covering women’s stories and later leading goddess groups, she had long devoted to helping women tap into their inner power and poise. As a minister, she quickly gained recognition as an expert in women’s empowerment, self-esteem and spirituality.

She also discovered great joy and success in her work as a wedding officiant, with a particular expertise in empowering brides and their grooms to rise above wedding stress and remember the sacred nature of their wedding. And in working with couples who were facing the unique situation of interfaith and blended marriages.

It became natural to apply her wisdom in the area of male-female dynamics, romance and relationships, and her work in women’s self esteem, to her flexible, open-minded approach of serving couples in a very personalized and individual way. Wedding Ministry evolved into the work she was called to most often, and she has devoted herself to helping to revolutionize the wedding experience for both brides and grooms. Each year she assists hundreds of couples through the challenges and the joys of preparing for their marriage.

Having established her ministry, she has been able to return in part to her first love, journalism.

She is Editor-in-Chief of Wedlok.com, a wedding information site.

She is guide and columnist on WeddingGoddessWisdom.com. a bridal inspiration site.

She is a relationship expert and group facilitator on Beliefnet.com, an award winning spirituality site.

She also syndicates her articles on matters of the heart – soul mates, weddings, marriage, and family relations – to dozens of regional publications, Internet magazines and e-zines. She is a long time columnist for Soulful Living.com and ClubMom.com and former Spirituality Editor and weekly columnist for HitchNY.com.

Along the way to leading so many other couples to the altar, she found her way there herself.

She met her husband and partner in life, Rev. Vic Fuhrman, at seminary school in 1997. She lives in New York with her husband, her son Alexander and their dog Kismet, who introduced them all to the world of Pet Prayers and Blessings!