i never did post a member bio, so here is my belated version.

a lot has changed in the few months since i last poked my head up in these parts, mainly that i started pastoring a small congregation that is 2 blocks from the ocean in redondo beach, CA. my husband and i moved here in june after spending a month visiting family in colorado and ohio. it's been an amazing few months. my congregation has been WONDERFUL- loving, welcoming, open. there are certainly challenges that go along with being a 25-year-old female pastor... namely, convincing folks i meet that i do not suffer from religious ideation, that i really am an ordained clergyperson even though i apparently look like i'm 19 (i hear that a lot from a particular woman at church... i've started teasing her that she doesn't look a day over 85... tee hee). i love the work, though. i love preaching, and befriending people in really meaningful ways.

the other big change is that we added a new member to our family... no, not a baby, a beautiful dog we named deacon.

a couple weeks ago ben and i went to a great record store in long beach that happened to have a "home recordings" version of GDBD. this is the one studio recording i've never had, and i jumped on the perfect-condition copy (selling for $7.99!). as we listened to it on the way home, i couldn't help but think about how long it had been since i'd really thought about how much this music means to me, and how many people i am connected to through this music. it made me proud of myself for being such a pushy broad with all my friends and family members- many of them now love over the rhine (though none so much as me, of course!). and it made me miss this orchard. even though i have always maintained a pretty high lurking percentage, popping up mainly to spout off my opinions about religious matters, i'm really quite attached to this.

so, anyway, i'm back. at least to be a more active lurker (i really haven't even done that much in the past three months).

peace & grace,
katherine

welcome back.

and congratulations on the job and such.

So nice to meet you, Katherine. I enjoyed your blog. Thanks for sharing.

Hi Katherine,

Wonderful to hear from you, and thanks for the link to your blog. That was the second sermon of yours I have read, and it again makes me joyful the spirit of Jesus has such an eloquent and graceful advocate amid all the misplaced self-righteousness characterizing much of Christianity in America today. My heart also goes out to the hurricane's multitude of victims (whatever we may choose to call them), and I'll spare you my opinion of those who characterize Katrina as divine retribution due to the language I'd feel compelled to employ.

We miss your gentle spirit here, but I rejoice in the good fortune of your parishioners.


PS. It's really cool that you work in a town Patti Smith wrote a song about.

hi, katherine! good to see you. thanks for giving us access to the lovely sermon. your congregation is certainly blessed.

welcome back!

Wow, congrats on all the good news. I have certainly missed your presence around here. I miss the way you make me think and hope.

Welcome back Katherine!

nice to meetcha...
John

thanks so much for the warm re-welcoming, and for the responses to the sermon. it is good to meet new people here and encounter the folks i'm already so fond of.

over in the katrina aftermath topic, kentuckiannna said:



annna, i appreciate your kind words and affirmations, and i hope you know that i
deeply value your perspective. but i cannot take credit for being a christian anomaly. it saddens me that progressive and liberal christian voices have been absent from much public dialogue about religion and ethics. this has happened for all kinds of reasons-- laziness, the sense among liberals that they shouldn't force their religious view on other people, the media's preference for sweet men like pat robertson, a lack of financial resources, etc. but progressive christians are all over the place. in seminaries like claremont school of theology, harvard, yale, and chicago divinity schools, pacific school of religion... the list goes on. at the helm and readership of publications like sojourners and the christian century, organizations like the national council of churches, and denominations like the united church of christ and the christian church (disciples of christ). the united church of christ is fully open and affirming of gays and lesbians at the national level, and at the recent disciples of christ general assembly, we overwhelmingly passed a resolution repudiating the practice of using hateful "religious" language against gays and lesbians. we also passed resolutions advocating for a living wage and the tearing down of the wall in israel/palestine. there is so much diversity in the christian church- theological and political.
i'm kind of rambling here... there was a time, growing up in a conservative church in ohio, that i did not know that there was this whole other way to read the bible and practice one's faith. i guess i just want to be clear that my belief in a God of peace and justice is formed and sustained by a community of believers- a communion of saints, as it were.

:-) ok... back to my sermon for sunday.

I do know that and the admiration is mutual. Thanks




I didn't mean to imply that you were an anomaly in your personal feelings of faith, just in your vocal and action-wise active fight against the degradation done to the Christian faith by far-out facist radicals who would twist the meaning of scripture to attain and hold onto to power. You fight corruption and injustice in word and deed--just like Jesus. That, I believe, is rare in this world where Christianity is often little more than dressed up self-help psychology that seeks to distract people from what is really going on.

That said, you made the comment that progressive Christians are reluctant to be pro-active because they don't want to force their faith on others. This is admirable, indeed. However, I think it is perfectly appropriate to force progressive Christianity on fundamentalists and radical evangelicals as long as one doesn't resort to violence or twisted rhetoric fronting as scripture. I wish more Christians would shout down the evil forces that dominate the public face of Chistianity today. I believe it is what Jesus would do, just as he did in the temple.

Good luck with that sermon.

sorry it took me so long to respond. annna, what i am trying to articulate that it is precisely the fight against corruption and injustice that those christian organizations i mentioned are so good at. my commitment to social justice and prophetic christianity pales in comparison to the commitments of many of my seminary colleagues, and the persons involved in the sojourners movement, etc. i know you didn't mean to imply i am an anomoly in my personal feelings of faith; what i want to emphasize is that i am not an anomaly in my public confession of faith and commitment to social justice.

:-)