Rev Cindy Breed, a Lutheran Chaplain with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, holds the head of Eleanor Snook of Malcom, Iowa at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City on Oct. 14. Eleanor is undergoing treatment for angiosarcoma. (Cliff Jette/SourceMedia Group)

IOWA CITY — Although Cindy Breed has been married to an ordained minister for 27 years, only in the past decade has she been able to enjoy the traditional duties of a pastor’s wife.

Cindy, 56, is an ordained minister herself, having served as co-pastor with her husband T. Edwards “Ed” Breed, 63, at the same churches and as an associate pastor of her own church.

Now, she serves as a chaplain for Evangelical Lutheran Church in America patients at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics in Iowa City, while Ed is the senior pastor at St. Andrew Lutheran Church, 4420 Center Point Rd. NE, Cedar Rapids.

“When at St. Andrew, I’m Cindy, not Pastor or Chaplain Breed,” she says. “I am able to be the pastor’s wife and sing in the choir.”

While she supports her husband’s ministry and his congregation, she remains committed to her own ministry which can call her in the middle of the night or on weekends.

“We don’t fall into that role of expectation as a pastor’s wife,” she says. “I can choose what I want to get involved. As in anything, I need to know my limits.”

The Breeds knew there would be challenges and sacrifices when they married in June 1984.

They were both in their third year at the Lutheran School of Theology of Chicago and were about to begin their ministerial internships.

Ed’s daughter, Melissa, was a growing 7-year-old. Melissa’s mother, Ed’s first wife, died of cancer in 1981.

Jim Netolicky, a health care information systems support analyst, speaks with the Rev. Cindy Breed, a Lutheran Chaplain with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, in a hallway at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City on Friday, Oct. 14. (Cliff Jette/SourceMedia Group)

“I became an instant wife, mother and intern,” Cindy Breed says.

During their first year of marriage, they interned in churches 13 miles apart, she at Lena, Ill., and he at Fremont, Ill.

After being ordained together in August 1986, they shared their first call as co-pastors at two congregations in Nebraska, nine miles apart.

Not much longer after they started their shared ministry, their daughter, Elizabeth, was born in January 1987.

Serving as co-pastors was a blessing as they raised their baby, and Melissa, who was 10 when her sister was born.

“We both could be parents of our daughter,” Cindy Breed, says. “She didn’t have to go to child care until she was 4.”

Although Cindy was the first female pastor at the small Nebraska churches, “some saw me just as the pastor’s wife, not the co-pastor,” she says.

That didn’t sit well with the Breeds, especially Ed.

“It has always been important for him for me to be equal,” Cindy Breed says. “When we wanted two separate calls, the congregation thought we were splitting up.”

In 1991, she was called to Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Cedar Falls as an associate pastor and he was called to Zion Lutheran Church in Hudson as lead pastor. They lived in the parsonage of the Hudson church, where their children attended.

The Rev. T. Edwards Breed includes the youth at the St. Andrew Lutheran Church during service Sunday, Oct. 16. (David Scrivner/SourceMedia Group)

While serving as associate pastor in Cedar Falls, Cindy Breed completed chaplain training to expand her ministry.

When called to University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics and Iowa City In January 1997, she knew she had to accept it even though it was 95 miles from Hudson.

For eight months, the family lived apart while Cindy had an apartment in Iowa City and Ed and their youngest daughter, Melissa, stayed in Husdon.

Ed then made then difficult decision to leave Hudson without another call to join his wife in Iowa City.

“It was the first time in our ministry we didn’t both have a call,” Cindy Breed says.

He served as interim associate pastor at churches in Marion and Oelwein until he was called in April 2000 to serve as senior pastor at St. Andrew in Cedar Rapids, where he continues to serve.

He realizes it was a risk to leave his church in Hudson without another call, but it eventually all fell in place.

“God will provide,” he says. “You can’t just sit on it, you have to work on it. St. Andrew is a place where I was meant to be.”

The Rev. Katie Hopper has also found the place she was meant to be after co-pastoring with her husband, Jimmy Hopper, throughout their nearly 28-year marriage.

The Rev. Katie Hopper stands at the pulpit at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1285 Third Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids, IA, on Thursday, Oct. 13. Hopper is the first female head of staff in the church’s 156-year history. (Angela Holmes/SourceMedia Group)

Last month, Hopper, 51, was installed as the first female senior pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1285 Third Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids, in its 156-year history.

She and Jimmy had served as co-pastors at First Presbyterian Church in Danville, Ill., for the past eight years. Jimmy will remain as pastor in Danville until called to a position in the Cedar Rapids area.

Although it was an emotional decision to leave Danville and her husband behind, Hopper says it was time to break the stained-glass ceiling at Westminster.

“They were actually looking for a woman,” she says of her new congregation. “I truly didn’t imagine God would do this. It’s still really rare for any woman to lead the church.”

Although she has been fully ordained for nearly two decades, at times she didn’t feel like a pastor.

“People would still introduce me as the minister’s wife,” she says. “It bothered me.”

With her appointment as senior pastor, she now gets the satisfaction of Jimmy being referred to as the pastor’s husband.

“Now, he is introduced as Mr. Katie,” she says. “He thinks it’s hilarious.”

The Hoppers’ college-age children, Kelly and JoyAnna, are also proud of their mother.

“They say, ‘it’s mom’s turn,’” Hopper says.

As a minister married to a minister, Hopper has been able to fulfill two lifelong dreams.

When she was eight years old, she knew she wanted to be a pastor’s wife. At 15, that ambition changed to wanting to be a minister after she attended a youth conference.

An “Air Force brat,” Hopper enrolled in Louisiana State University at age 16 after scoring high on her ACT tests while a high school student in Mississippi.

“Technically, I never graduated from high school,” she says.

With a degree in English/history at age 20, she entered Austin Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas.

At seminary, she immediately struck up a friendship with fellow student Jimmy Hopper. Within a year, the friendship blossomed into a romance as they planned their future ministry.

“Once we met each other, we wanted to do this together,” she says.

After a 13-month engagement, they married in December 1983.

Their first three calls, they were “two for the price of one,” she says, making a combined $15,000 in their first call in rural Texas.

“We survived and God took care of us,” she says. “They (the community) were very good to us. We learned everything we know there.”

Serving as co-pastors allowed them to spend more time as family.

“It was ideal when the kids were raised,” she says. “One of us was always home. We consider ourselves blessed to that.”

She also considers herself blessed to lead the 700-member Westminster church in the tough Wellington Heights neighborhood in southeast Cedar Rapids.

Once Jimmy has a pastoral position in Eastern Iowa, the couple plans to move into the neighborhood.

“Here is where ministry is needed,” Hopper says. “We want to move here.”