Rev. Catharine Is Currently
On Medical Leave

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 […]

The Community of Welcome We Make

I did something in this week’s love letter, Reflections, that I’d never done before in any other edition. As those of you who were able to open and read your copy know, I invited readers to reply to me and tell me how we got connected. In return, I pulled a card—in this case, one […]

Hospitality of the Holidays?

complex woven Christmas ball with lights inside

In some ways, this is a season of hospitality or its lack. Many of us hear the story of the emigration and return of Joseph and Mary to and from Egypt, reminiscent of the time the Israelites spent in Egypt generations earlier. Many of us hear the story of the pregnant Mary being welcomed by […]

Outsiders Welcome Here

As I have written before, I have spent much of my life as an “outsider,” a “freak,” an “imposter” in the world of “normal people.” And I am learning that those of us who have believed—often wisely—that we have to hide our identities in some way, are “my people.” You are the people who have […]

Where Do the People Come From?

Axis mundi. Omphalos. Strange words to our English-hearing ears. Each expression means, in its own way, the Center of the Universe. The Axis Mundi might be the World Tree in any of a number of myths. The Omphalos, or Navel of the World, might be anywhere that is held most sacred, anywhere said to be […]