Rev. Catharine Is Currently
On Medical Leave

Earth-based UU Practice: the VUU

I was so pleased to be asked to speak on the VUU this morning:  the Church of the Larger Fellowship’s panel discussion on various topics of the day. Today was about Earth-based/Pagan practice and its intersections with Unitarian Universalism. We had a great time. Let me know what you think! Click on the link above […]

Lammas is Coming, the Grain is Getting Fat

Monday evening, at 4 pm Pacific, 5 pm Mountain, etc. I shall be coordinating a discussion in preparation for Lammas, the contemporary and ancient Earth-centered grain holiday. As I’ve prepared for our discussion, some words and their etymologies have come to mind, and some pieces of stories about my experience of Lammas over the years. […]

No Glitter in My Ashes Part III

Who’s Repenting? Another Problem Solved by Truth-Telling So ashes aren’t a problem. Glitter itself may not even be the problem. Blending is a problem. And there is another problem yet. The problem of singling out. In the article to which I am partly responding, the author makes two suggestions:  One, have a glitter + ashes […]

No Glitter in My Ashes, Part I

“You’re the most Catholic UU I’ve ever met,” now-Reverend Madelyn Campbell said to me across the aisle in the seminary lecture hall. And in many ways, she was right, and she’s still right. My wife says I’m Episcopalian in the winter (awesome Advent!), Catholic in the spring (tune-up of Lent), more aggressively Pagan in the […]

Brigid and the Power to Change

NB: I wrote another piece before the events of the weekend of 28 January. As a result of the horrors entwining themselves around our government and around our nation, I have rewritten this post to point out that one of the ways Imbolc, the Pagan holiday just past, is often celebrated is with power and politics. Imbolc […]

Brigid Lady of Fire and Water

NB: If you’d like to see the recorded class/discussion from last night, please join The Way of the River Community Facebook Group. You can search “The Way of the River Community” in the upper left-hand corner of your Facebook page to find us. It’s a private group, so you’ll need to ask to be added, […]

Another Journey with Inanna

The story of the Descent and Return of the Sumerian goddess Inanna is one that is close to my heart. Inanna is sort of the grandmother to Aphrodite of the sea-foam. Inanna’s reincarnations in different cultures came to the Phoenicians, who brought the worship of Aphrodite by sea to Greece. Inanna is the goddess called the […]

The Priestess-Minister: Where Does the River Flow?

I became a priestess. I became a minister. I never relinquished one for the other. And now I’m integrating the wealth of understanding I’ve gained from my preparation and experience of each of these roles into one whole, one identity. To Grow Is Both to Lose and to Gain Part of that integration has involved […]

Who Is This Priestess? Part 3

So after the preceding posts, some questions come to mind, one of which is, What does it mean to be a priestess? Or at least, What does it mean for me? There are several others, but I can’t speak to all of these in one post, but I can speak to the first question, and […]

Priestess Part 2:  Four Quarters

In 1996, in the company of a dear friend and sometime girlfriend (we had a boyfriend in common, but that’s another story), I went to what was then simply called Four Quarters Farm, a campground administered by the Church of Four Quarters, an interfaith, largely Pagan church. What follows is my account on this day, […]