Midsummer Ceremony
If you already know you want to spend Saturday, June 13th with Rev. Deanna Vandiver (“De” she/they/De) and Rev. Catharine Clarenbach (“Qira” fae/faer or she/her), go ahead register here. We will gather on Zoom on the morning of June 13th to celebrate the strengthening sun and the joy and brilliance of our own hearts.
The World is Hard to Live In
The World is Hard
to Live In
Living as a compassionate being on Earth is so hard right now. There is war around the world, politics without compassion, and our own and others’ suffering, all on every side. All these concerns and so many others weigh heavily on our hearts.
There is no escaping that we are all in this mess together. Rev. Deanna Vandiver and I see folks doing all they can to show up for others with integrity and care. The two of us are called to foster persistent gentleness and love as we build strong, attentive relationships with our own hearts and with Earth. We’d love to share a day of connection and reflection with you on June 13th, 2026.
Might This Be You?
The news cycle is relentless and oppressive. You want to act and answer to current events while also taking care of yourself and your beloveds. But as you try to tend to what matters, you may leave yourself out of the equation and slip away from tending to your own heart. And for many, the overwhelm, compassion fatigue, and burnout that come from “pouring out of an empty cup” are all too familiar.
You may feel most yourself, most healed and whole, when you are outside—in the woods, by the sea, in the mountains, tooling around your own neighborhood. You may be grateful to be anywhere where you can feel a breeze against your skin and take in fresh air.
As you recognize how much better you feel outside the pressures of productivity-obsessed, capitalist clocktime, you long for a connection to Earth and Her time, days and months and seasons governed by the sun and moon and Gaia Herself.
And perhaps you have attended my (Rev. Catharine’s) Going into the Dark Yuletide retreat day. You know how important the balance between light and dark is. As you have honored the close and holy darkness in December, you yearn to celebrate the growing strength of summer’s light in June.
This light is neither better nor worse than the dark; it is different. Each has its place, time, and wisdom. Whether you have attended the winter solstice rituals, you all have gone deeply into the dark, and now we invite you to receive the gifts of the light.
If you find yourself in any of these, welcome! Rev. Deanna and I have put together a day just for you.
Tenderly Meeting You Where You Are
Your suffering at the hands of an extractive, capitalist, white supremacist culture doesn’t make you weak, wrong, overly sensitive, or unreasonable. In fact, it’s evidence that you’re wise, compassionate, and you offer yourself to the world, even when it’s hard.
Beloveds, Rev. Deanna and I see you trying so hard to show up with integrity, loving both yourselves and others. We see you doing your best to do what’s “in your lane,” and to keep all the balls in the air. The thing is, no one can keep all the balls in the air, as it were. As long as we’re caught in this culture, working without fail and seemingly without end, we never feel spaciousness, rest, or renewal.
Rev. Deanna and I intend to bring creative love to this time together. Our shared commitment is to hold a tender, solid container of ritual presence, compassionate witness, and insightful inquiry. During the time we all share, we hope everyone will “come to the water” and drink from the Source, the Limitless Well of love and wisdom.
By hosting Gifts of the Light: Midsummer Ceremony on June 13th, we offer you healing and restoration. We have felt the depletion too, and we long to heal it. We try to align with Nature’s cycles to cultivate wise hearts and reliable guidance. We want to help you find your alignment, as well.
What We Offer You
- Earth Time rather than capitalist time, Real Time rather than clocktime. As you reconnect with the season, you may find your heart able to pause, breathe, and be present.
- Respite from the onslaught of the news cycle. It will all be there when you need to return. It is okay, necessary even, to take this day to renew our sense of hope.
- A tender space of acceptance and belonging. We all need this so deeply, yet it can be so elusive. Rev. Deanna and I look forward to creating a space of belonging where you feel safe enough to be brave.
- The chance to touch grass, whether literally or figuratively, and feel Earth’s loving, faithful embrace. She’s always here, friends. And Her loving embrace of gravity is the most faithful you will ever know. Particularly in the middle part of your day, you’ll have time to remember Earth, and reintroduce yourself to Her. Where are your feet? Your seat? Feel the weight of your body and know that you are held by Gaia, from Whom you are never separate.
- An invitation to drink from the Source of Love and Wisdom, that Limitless Well that never runs dry. Beloved, beloved, beloved. Can you access love in these days? We hope to strengthen your sense of love, both receiving and giving. You are worthy of love, and we remind you that love comes in many forms most beautiful.
- Connection with your own wise and divine heart, as it is reflected in the brilliance of the summer sun. In this season of warmth, are there ways for you to experience blessing and blessedness?
- The experience of a group heart. A group heart, that quality born of mutually shared attention and acceptance, is a truly beautiful thing. A group heart births peace, insight, and care that come when we witness and receive one another’s deep truths. By spending time together in ceremony, as well as on our own, we hope to nurture a loving group heart throughout the day.
As the Earth, in Her flamboyant generosity, gives Life to all Her creatures, we too can nurture and the communities of which we are all a part. Let us take a day to seek nourishment for our hearts and restore our gratitude and easy generosity. May that ease come from celebration, reciprocity, the joy of self-expression, and a connection to the abundance of summer.
What We Will Share
These days, as we lean toward the solstice, the days are long, and we honor that with ceremony early and late.
- Saturday, June 13th begins with ceremony at 9 am EDT/8 CDT/7 MDT/6 PDT.
- After receiving suggestions for how you might approach and encounter your day, the hours between the first and second ceremony are yours.
- We close with ceremony at 9 pm EDT/8 pm CDT/7 pm MDT/6 PDT.
During morning ceremony, we will share an ancient story and consider what is means to be blessed, to receive more than has been given, and to give back again. During evening ceremony, we will tell stories of gifts, our own, others’, and Earth’s.
On your own, over the course of the day and between the embrace of morning and evening ritual, you will have time to notice the generosity of Nature and how it echoes in your own heart. We will share some prompts for how you might approach your daytime contemplations.
Our Hopes for You
Having attended Gifts of the Light, may you be renewed and refreshed.
May you feel a strong sense of connection with the others in our ceremonies.
May your own heart feel open, grateful, and generous.
May you have new understanding of how Sun and Earth dance together where you are in the world.
May you have a stronger relationship with the holiday of Midsummer.
This event is not about exhausting yourselves further by effortful giving. Rather, we invite you to curl into and celebrate who you are and the blessings you already bring.
We will delight in you and celebrate your miraculous beauty with joy. Celebration is called for, friends! We are blessed with a kaleidoscope of gifts, different gifts for different folks. What would we do without one another? After all, we are all in this together.
Our fee is a pay-from-the-heart scale of $40-$140 for the whole day.
If you are able to support our policy of no one being turned away for lack of funds (NOTAFLOF), please give at the higher end of the scale. If a lower fee resonates with you, you are absolutely welcome to it. Discern what feels right in your heart, and register with that fee.
If you are drawn to the event, but not able to pay the fee, please Rev. Catharine at qira@thewayoftheriver.com so I can put you on the registration list, no questions asked. If your heart yearns to attend, we hope you will be with us.
Your registration confirmation will include the Zoom link for the ceremony, as well as a reminder to add the event to your calendar for June 13th.
We so look forward to seeing you!
Who We Are
Rev. Catharine (“Qira” fae/she)
Rev. Catharine (Qira) Clarenbach is a white, fat, sovereign queer femme who grew up surrounded by the mixed forest of the ancient hill-and-valley region of Pennsylvania. Now northwest Washington is faer home, near the banks of the Salish Sea.
Faer heart has been shaped by many religious communities, including Wicca, Unitarian Universalism, Roman Catholicism, Reform Judaism, and in 2014, fae received faer Masters of Divinity from Wesley Theological Seminary, a United Methodist institution. Fae was initiated into the Stone Circle Tradition of Wicca (USA) in 1999 and ordained into the UU ministry in 2015 by All Souls Church Unitarian Church (Washington, DC). Rev. Catharine spent four years in discernment with the Sisters of St. Joseph and is trained and credentialed as a spiritual director and supervisor.
Fae helps people alienated from or ambivalent about religion find their own, authentic spirituality. Whether religious trauma, isolation, or alienation have been a part of your past or not, fae is here for your work on your own path. Through faer ministry of the Way of the River, fae offers tender witnessing, inquiry, and ritual for seekers around the world from many faiths and none.
Rev. Deanna (“De” she/they/De)
Born by a lowland salt marsh, educated by a mighty river, and called by love to an island cared for by the people of the clear saltwater since time immemorial, Rev. Deanna (De) Vandiver is a called-auntie in the world and has served the values of Unitarian Universalism as director of justice education for UUSC, as director of the UU College of Social Justice, as co-director of the Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal in New Orleans, and as a member of the Beloved Conversations Virtual Un/Learning for Liberation design team. As a human raised to be white inside of violent extractive empire, Deanna is deeply grateful to the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond for shaping her core understandings as a young adult and beyond of how systemic racism dehumanizes all of us – and how it can be undone together. Deanna is the founder of Ever Unfolding and is an Affiliated Community Minister for Love and Liberation with the Church of the Larger Fellowship UU.