Originally submitted as an article by Kathleen Owens (she/her), Manager of Clergy Programming and Communications, CCR, in the July 17, 2026 issue of Weekly Wisdom.

“Holy Wisdom showed me there is a spiritual power in showing up and being available to God in prayer, without words, just as ourselves. It was fabulous, such great freedom, to be told, ‘Show up as yourself and we’re going to see what God does. We believe God will do something. We believe the Spirit will move in some way.’” This is how Jennifer Zogg reflects on what she has learned from her experiences at Holy Wisdom Monastery in her career as an Episcopal Priest.

Jennifer first came to be part of a summer volunteer crew for a month in 2007, while she was in seminary. “I remember arriving at Holy Wisdom, a young woman from suburban upstate New York. The prairie is not a place I’d been. And there I was in the back of a pickup truck, chest high in leafy spurge and whatever invasives we were pulling from the prairie. At first, I thought, ‘This is terrible. What am I doing out in the hot sun, pulling these things? And even at the chapel, the Psalms are not what I know, they’ve rewritten them. What have they done to my tradition?’ But over that month of volunteering, I became completely new. I loved being out there. I formed a community with the other women who were there, we had such a bond. I adored the sisters and their spirit. It taught me to pray so expansively, to find expansive language for God, to hear how beautiful those prayers were.”

Jennifer came back to Holy Wisdom Monastery as part of the 3rd Cohort of CCR pastors for Contemplative Renewal Immersions in July 2022 and January 2023. “I came in close to spiritual exhaustion and burnout, wondering ‘How can I keep doing this work effectively?’ I needed some help caring for my soul. I found that in the silence, the space, the ease, and the hospitality. During that first immersion I felt my hands open and my heart open and just relax. I often say it reminded me of my better self. It reminded me of the image of God in me.”

In 2025, Jennifer moved to a new parish on Cape Cod. In this new call she is aware of what was planted in her at Holy Wisdom Monastery, “The seed of calling the land Holy no matter what it looks like or what it needs. I’ve spent the last year getting to know this land as a new friend and listening to what it’s telling me it needs. Holy Wisdom planted that in me. And it planted in me the rhythm of the prayers. Whether you are there or not, trusting that God is present, whether your heart is there or not, or whether you can concentrate or not. The seed is the faithfulness of showing up. Holy Wisdom has provided this experience for me of arriving in a more skeptical way, or in a difficult place, and always being broken open by the land and by the prayers. From when I was a seminarian to a mid-career Pastor. It provided these moments of renewal and resurrection.”

In her ministry, Jennifer tries to share the seeds planted in her over many years of connection to Holy Wisdom Monastery. “I have become an evangelist for a contemplative life in my congregation. Not in a programmatic way…. I’m trying to build a contemplative way of being, a contemplative way of life, into congregational experience as a balance to life that asks something very different of us all the time.” The call to show up and pay attention continues to resonate in Jennifer’s life and ministry. Thank you for supporting the space that has allowed Jennifer to show up as herself and to give her the ability to provide that space for others in turn.

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As a member of the first cohort of Contemplative Renewal Immersions, Katye Chambers’ second Immersion was in January 2020. She did not realize the gift of listening circles, silence and the rhythm of prayer, until the pandemic fully arrived two months later. “I noticed I was not freaking out and panicking in the way that I saw everyone else around me doing. I asked myself what caused that and I realized I am grounded in my spirit and at peace because I’ve spent this time at Holy Wisdom. In the throes of the pandemic I realized I had a sense of peace and calm and rootedness my colleagues and friends did not have.”

It was experiencing contemplative practices in an ecumenical setting that attracted Katye to apply for the new Contemplative Renewal Immersions being offered at Holy Wisdom Monastery in 2019. A few years into her first appointment in the United Methodist Church, Katye knew she needed regular time for renewal and retreat. “I’m naturally the kind of person that overbooks myself. I already sensed in my spirit that I needed to start practicing now, building in these rhythms of stepping back for renewal.” The ecumenical setting also intrigued her. Katye has a background in ecumenical work and study, but notes that “Within the ecumenical movement, there’s a lot of dialogue work and a lot of missional work, but I had not seen ecumenical contemplative work…. Also, I was interested in getting to know ecumenical clergy colleagues and hear about their calls to ministry, experiences and contexts.”

In Contemplative Renewal Immersions, Katye found both the ecumenical connections and the contemplative practices she was seeking. She holds on to a memory of sitting in a listening circle where there was a small rock that each person held as they felt called to share. “I saw in others, and felt for myself, the weight of that tiny little rock. It symbolized giving people permission to speak freely and not hold anything back. It wasn’t a heavy rock, but you could feel that people felt the weight of what it meant to be given permission to bring their full selves into the circle.”

Years later, Katye continues to incorporate the rhythms and practices she experienced at Holy Wisdom Monastery into her ministry. “I started this practice every afternoon at 2:00. We have teatime. It is an intentional way to get away from my computer for an hour and to allow myself to do something different. But I knew I shouldn’t be doing this alone. So, every afternoon at 2:00, I step out into the hallway and ring the singing bowl. Anybody else who’s in the office that day knows it is the invitation to teatime. We gather in my office. Sometimes whoever’s preaching that Sunday will workshop the sermon. Sometimes we read whatever we’re reading at that time. Sometimes it’s literal tea…. But the practice of the singing bowl and the permission to transition and take a step away from what we’re doing and do something different, is in a subtle way, part of what I took away from Holy Wisdom.”

Another piece of what Katye learned at Holy Wisdom Monastery is the relationship between the physical land, our spirituality, and our relationship with God. Serving in Chicago, and now in Little Rock, Arkansas, Katye has found ways within her urban ministry contexts to help people “reconnect with the ground and with the earth.” In her current call she helped the church to start a green team and found joy in supporting one of their green team leaders. “Her passion is helping people connect with plants that are native and indigenous to our own bio region.” They recently held an Earth Day fair and gave people seed packets for native monarch habitats. “[Our] big picture dream is that across Little Rock and maybe even central Arkansas, there will be little plots of butterfly habitat because we said, ‘Take this home and plant it.’”

Since Katye arrived at Holy Wisdom seven years ago, she has navigated a pandemic, had children, moved and changed jobs. The contemplative practices and community of support that gave her peace and a sense of rootedness during the onset of the pandemic still sustains her in ministry today. “Even if I can’t build in the rhythm of renewal leave or a week of vacation, I can build renewal into the rhythms of my day, my week, my month … even if just for a moment because every moment matters.”

Thank you for being part of the fertile ground where Katye found roots to grow as one who continues to scatter seeds of hope for a flourishing world.

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Submitted by Kathleen Owens (she/her), Manager of Clergy Programming and Communications for the Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery.

James Rissler tried to prepare for his first Contemplative Renewal Immersion, and first visit to Holy Wisdom Monastery, by reading the Rule of Benedict. As a Mennonite Pastor from Georgia, he was not quite sure what to expect. He had some uncertainty about where he was heading in his vocation and a desire to explore more contemplative practices. He was concerned that St. Benedict seems to discourage humor and laughter. He wondered, “What kind of place will this be?”

On the first day, James was walking by the gardens and heard another pastor in his cohort, Amy, laughing loudly. He told Amy how much her joy put him at ease after reading Benedict’s discouragement of laughter. Amy shared her concerns over the upcoming 24 hours of silence, a practice that is comfortable for James.  This exchange confirmed for him the strength of being together in a cohort. “I’ve always been someone who appreciates processing things in relationships, so coming to Holy Wisdom and engaging in contemplative practices with other clergy from across the country and different traditions was attractive.” The diversity of the group and the way each of their gifts supported one another deepened his understanding of how important it is to be present for others, not just as a pastor, but as a person.

When it was time to write a Rule of Life in the Winter Immersion, James wrote a rule that reflected his desire to keep working not on specific practices, but on his presence. “My rule doesn’t commit me to any practices. It commits me to a kind of presence in the world. I’m clearer on a sense that who I am as a leader and a pastor is a person who tries to show up with a particular kind of presence to remain grounded in God’s love and sharing that love with those with whom I engage.”

James’ rule has a larger form, but it is the simple version that he references regularly: “I try to live with love, joy and presence.” Over five years have passed since James’ wrote this rule and shared it with his cohort and the sisters. James reflects, “Immediately and over the last five years, it facilitated, it deepened, it pointed me on a path that I’ve continued to walk…. The kind of person I am now, as a leader, was planted at Holy Wisdom and continues to grow.”

This ongoing growth comes through experiences outside of Holy Wisdom Monastery and through his monthly small group online gatherings with four members of his cohort, regular reunions with his full cohort and ongoing connection to the wider community of communities. “There is a kind of community that Holy Wisdom is as a whole, of which the Center for Clergy Renewal is an important part. But it’s a mutually beneficial relationship. I think neither would be what it is without the other. The space, the community, feels like it has a certain charism.”

Thank you for being part of the nurturing environment that can help James and other pastors find grounding in how they are being called to show up in the world.

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Submitted by Kathleen Owens (she/her), Manager of Clergy Programming and Communications for the Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery.

“I don’t know if burned out is the right word,” reflects Julane Nease when recalling what led her to apply to Contemplative Renewal Immersions, “but I was feeling the stress of my call. There’d been a lot of difficulties that had happened within the life of the people in the congregation.” When she arrived for her first immersion in July 2021, she realized she was not alone. “I remember at that first session being struck at how emotional it was, several people, and I think probably me, were crying when we were talking about what had been going on and all the stress points in our lives and ministries.”

Julane felt the welcome and embrace of the cohort community in the group sessions. In Centering Prayer, she found a welcome and embrace from Christ. “I remember sitting in the oratory sinking into Centering Prayer and saying to myself, ‘OK, Jesus, here I am.’ And then I saw Jesus’ eyes right in front of me. I heard him say, ‘I’m here too.’”

By the end of the first immersion, Julane knew the contemplative way of praying and understanding God was needed in her life. The encouragement to look inward helped her to see the need to care for her own spiritual health. She is an extrovert and generally tends to be outward facing in her life. Paying attention to the internal was amazing, but hard. She entered the second immersion tender and ready for care. “It was okay because it was really a soft place to land. I knew that if all I could do was cry that was okay and people would be there to support me. I’ll always be tremendously grateful for that space.”

Beyond the two immersions, it is Julane’s ongoing small group that has provided a deep ongoing connection. “They are people that will show up for me whenever I need them, and they know that I will do that for them too.” It is also in her small group where Julane continues to develop her understanding of what it means to be a contemplative person and pastor. “We talk about it in our small group because we all feel we are walking contemplatives in this world. Thinking of myself that way reminds me to pause and be quiet, because how else am I going to hear God if things are so loud? Especially in this season in our country, everything is so loud. If I can remember to take five minutes of Centering Prayer, it is enough to refocus. Remember my breath. That’s been a big change.”

In her effort to be a walking contemplative in the world, Julane incorporates aspects of contemplative practice into worship. Worship now starts with silence, a form of Statio that Julane sees as particularly helpful for bringing the community together when some are online and others are in person. Reading Psalms aloud together has also shifted. “I remember Sister Lynne talking to us about how the sisters read out loud together. It’s about listening to each other. It’s not just about saying the words. I always try to let my voice be one voice among others. Sometimes I have the sense I’m going with the waves of the way the people are reading and speaking.” Thank you for being part of the community that supports the walking contemplatives in our loud world. The deep roots Julane developed through the Contemplative Renewal Immersions are continuing to feed Julane and her congregation, bringing forth new fruit as they continue to walk together through challenging times.

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Submitted by Kathleen Owens (she/her), Manager of Clergy Programming and Communications for the Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery

Christy Suffecool was one of the first pastors to come for a Deep Breath retreat when the ministry began in the fall of 2023. Her first Deep Breath retreat in November 2023, led to another in November 2024, and another in November 2025. Thinking back to when she heard about the Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery in 2023, Christy remembers, “… I was fried. I did what I thought was self-care, but it really wasn’t taking care of me the way I needed to. I started the process of looking for a place to retreat to, but I was running into a lot of places that would not accept women clergy, or if they did, they wouldn’t acknowledge that I was a pastor. I needed a place where I was going to be supported and encouraged.”

Christy realized quickly that the community at Holy Wisdom Monastery is one where she would be welcomed. “But I felt completely clueless. I had no idea what it would look like to ‘do renewal.’” She took the framework and resources provided as part of Deep Breath retreats and leaned into that. The schedule centers on joining the sisters for prayer three times a day which Christy remembers being a struggle at first, “I was reluctant, I remember the first few times sitting there, not knowing what to do. In centering prayer I could not get my brain to calm down. I remember holding the prayer beads thinking,  ‘Okay, at least I can sit here and sit still and hold something even if my brain isn’t still.’ But by the end of that week, I realized I had discovered peace. So, I spent the next year trying to build a rhythm in my life and trying to continue to pursue peace, not realizing it wasn’t something I could pursue. I had to learn to live into it.”

“The second year when I came, it was much more about getting back into the rhythm and resetting.” As Christy continued to incorporate the rhythm of prayer she learned at Holy Wisdom Monastery after her second Deep Breath, she also moved to a new appointment as Senior Pastor at New Leaf United Methodist Church in Conneaut, Ohio. In her new parsonage, Christy set up a prayer room. “I’ve started practices of daily prayer time. I don’t do it every day, but I know how to care for myself better than I used to. I’ve gotten feedback that I’m a much more effective pastor because of it.” Her children have also noticed the changes. “The first time I came back from Holy Wisdom, both of my daughters said, ‘You are a different mom. This was good for you, and you needed it.”

Christy was back for her third Deep Breath in November of 2025. She has already told her new congregation that this is something she needs to do every year. “This was not anything I was ever expecting when I came here. Which is funny to say because I didn’t know what to expect. But I did not anticipate the impact it would have, or that this would become my thing that I want to do every year. Some people plan beach vacations every year. I plan my getaway to the monastery to go be with God for a week and escape the rest of the world. All the problems and all the challenges will still be there when I go back, but I’ve had a chance to refresh and renew. I get time to sit and be with God, to hike, and I do the things that fill my soul. I get to be around the sisters and go through the rhythms and have the great food.”

Christy has found a rhythm of renewal through the pattern of daily prayer and annual Deep Breath retreats that is sustaining her ministry and helping her to grow in a new appointment. “Holy Wisdom Monastery was the catalyst to take me to the next stage in ministry. [I learned] it had to be me healing and taking care of myself first so that I could be utilized, and Deep Breath created that space for me to do that.” This rhythm is helping her to scatter seeds in Ohio as she begins to look at how her congregation can use their land as part of their ministry. Another piece she is learning from time at Holy Wisdom Monastery that she hopes to grow in years to come. Thank you for being part of the community that holds the space and renewing rhythms that sustain Christy in her ministry.

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Submitted by Kathleen Owens (she/her), Manager of Clergy Programming and Communications for the Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery

James Salimes was struggling with disillusionment when he heard about the Contemplative Renewal Immersions at Holy Wisdom Monastery. As part of his disillusionment, he left ministry as a non-denominational pastor and started serving as a chaplain. James entered the immersions hopeful the experience would help him “work through my disillusion, but with an open mind to see where it would lead me.” As a part of the fourth cohort of Contemplative Renewal Immersions, he found a community of pastors from a variety of traditions. “It was a different experience for me to be with a group of pastors like that. Different from my own background. Not the group I’d normally hang out with.”

On the opening night of their first immersion, everyone was invited to take a rock and name something that they wanted to set down or let go of in their time at Holy Wisdom Monastery. James reflects, “I remember taking my rock and letting go of fear. That was a great way to start.” Another key moment from his second immersion was participating in a Clearness Triad, a practice built on the Quaker tradition of Clearness Committees. “It was something I longed to do but didn’t know I was longing for. It was like [being with] an especially good friend who will sit and listen. But those relationships are few and far between.  When we sat down and [I realized] there was a name for this, and there is a way to practice this, and it could be a part of everyday conversation…that was a big moment for me.”

In the spring after the second immersion, James found himself using these skills in his work as a chaplain. He remembers a particular conversation that spring, sitting with a grieving woman who had a lot of questions: “All these answers were coming to mind from college and the ministry I was a part of for so long. I was able to let that go and let her explore and listen to her without having answers or correcting her. I allowed the Holy Spirit to take the lead in our conversation. Since then, it’s helped me when I go to speak with people. I’m not the answer guy.”

The Contemplative Renewal Immersions helped James to see the work of the Holy Spirit in others and in himself. He came to “understand my own belovedness.” Awareness of his own belovedness opened James to an awareness of Christ’s presence in others. “If Christ is present than I can learn something from someone else no matter where they are from. I can see where God is at work. That is something I am trying to be more aware of, aware of how the Holy Spirit is working in the person next to me or whomever I meet that day. I keep calling myself back to that awareness, because it is easy for me to slip out of that awareness.”

Through the community of the Contemplative Renewal Immersions, James was able to strengthen the deep roots of his faith in Christ’s love and the leadership of the Holy Spirit. From strength of these roots, he is able to bring God’s love into the daily interactions of his ministry. Thank you for your support!

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Submitted by Kathleen Owens (she/her), Manager of Clergy Programming and Communications for the Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery

Stef Coleman was six months into a new call in the city of Chicago when a colleague who had come to Holy Wisdom Monastery for a Deep Breath, suggested checking out what is available through the Center for Clergy Renewal. Stef remembers feeling like “I was always being poured out” when she found Contemplative Renewal Immersions on the website. The idea of being part of a cohort of pastors in similar life positions or ministry contexts was appealing. “I was hoping for rest and renewal, but also to hear from God in a way that felt hard to access in the center of a ministry context where I feel very isolated.”

During the Immersions, she found this longed for community and support through the other pastors and in the rhythm of prayer with the sisters. “Showing up, doing silence, was filling in a way that I didn’t expect. Being together with other people praying the psalms out loud in a service I didn’t lead was part of that.”

Receiving this spiritual care gave her the grounding she needed to realize she was carrying a lot of anger.  In a conversation with one of the spiritual guides, she was able to acknowledge her anger as a part of being human. “Instead of rejecting it or being afraid of it. It felt good to know God can use it, too. I came out feeling more grounded emotionally and spiritually and able to utilize my anger in a season that has felt very tumultuous.”

Stef notices this change in her ministry. “I feel a lot more confident. I feel a lot more grounded. I’ve been able to bring in different elements to my ministry without being as afraid as I might have been before.” These changes include sharing different images of God and worship practices that Stef encountered through the immersions. “I implemented some changes in our worship service that I think have been really fruitful, talking through different ways of doing ministry, trying to uphold those in my congregation who are older.”

Stef continued, “It’s also given me a lot more grounding for the social justice work that’s really close to my heart and being more unafraid to share what it could look like in other people’s lives as well. Coming from a more evangelical background and upbringing, social justice is not emphasized. Being able to separate that upbringing from who I feel God is and God’s priorities has helped me share more openly why my husband, Chris, and I are making decisions about being a foster family or partnering with a local organization to house refugees.” This call in her life is “just part of who our family is.”

Being grounded in her own understanding of who God is and God’s call in her life also awakened Stef’s creativity. “I’m a writer, and before the Immersion program, I had gone through a year and half dry spell of not writing anything new. At the second immersion, I felt a loosening of the shameful feeling from my Evangelical past which caused me to bifurcate my soul into being either a pastor or artist. I was able to let go of the shame and live into both parts of myself.” Since her Immersion last January, she has returned to writing and completed a draft of a novel as well as taken a class on mosaics to explore a new art form.

Your support of the Center for Clergy Renewal allows pastors like Stef to find a place to be grounded in God’s love, grow in community and scatter seeds of spiritual renewal, justice and artistic beauty for a flourishing world. Thank you for all you do!

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Submitted by Kathleen Owens (she/her), Manager of Clergy Programming and Communications for the Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery

Michael Anderson stumbled across the Center for Clergy Renewal (CCR) while on a personal retreat at Holy Wisdom Monastery. His interest in CCR led to joining the fourth cohort of Contemplative Renewal Immersions. In the Immersion he found “people who were speaking the same language.” Reflecting on his first immersion in the summer of 2023, Michael says, “What I experienced was no less than the presence of the risen Christ standing among us, breathing peace. It couldn’t be anything else because that presence surely wasn’t the result of any group posturing or effort – its source was assuredly, ‘not us.’”

Michael sees the difference in what is offered through Contemplative Renewal Immersions from other continuing education or pastoral renewal programs. As he puts it, “As appropriate and useful as those other things are, they are not helping you deal with what is going on in you at a faith level and a soul level.” The Immersions allowed space to share with other clergy openly and with vulnerability, creating a cohort that was unguarded. “The thing that just continued to bowl me over throughout the week was how so much love and ministry could be shared among people. Everybody was so grateful for the for the opportunity to be seen.”

Following the Immersions, Michael began to ask himself, “What do you do when you’ve had what feels like a Gospel of John moment where you’ve been individually, and as a group, locked away in a place of fear? What do you do when you’ve been in that place and you’ve had the risen Christ come among you and say, you know, it’s cool, right? Now I’ve had that experience and I can’t forget it. And the way this contemplative thing works is that what you receive in the experience ultimately makes its way out of you in love towards the world.”

Michael is staying close to this gift of unguarded love through the contemplative practices he learned in the immersions and the community that he gained in his cohort. In his ministry he is particularly aware that “there’s been an untangling. My sense of belonging to God is now totally separate than my experience of being a pastor which somehow frees me to be more of a pastor and more a lover of God.” He is also living in more unguarded ways as this love makes its way out of him. “I am dialed into taking time to check on colleagues. I’m deeply aware of how unsupported people feel.”

Michael’s experience of the Contemplative Immersion program also led him back to Holy Wisdom Monastery to become an Oblate. His interest in being an Oblate grew in part from a need to go deeper and understand the thing that incubated the CCR. “If CCR is the container that’s holding all these discerning, tender hearts, there’s also a container that’s holding CCR. Going down the path to becoming an Oblate for me is about needing to spend

more time getting my heart educated and kindles new appreciation for and deepening in the tradition that formed me.”

Michael is at the beginning of a new journey in his life educating his heart and supporting others, especially his colleagues in ministry, along the way. Thank you for your support as part of the container that holds the Center for Clergy Renewal so that pastors like Michael can find spaces to be unguarded and open to Christ’s presence and peace in their lives.

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Dear Community of Communities,

It is with deep gratitude and reverence for the members of the search committee, the Sisters, the Board of Directors and the gentle, but persistent pull of the Spirit, that I have accepted the position to be the new Director of the Center for Clergy Renewal at Holy Wisdom Monastery.  I will begin on January 6, 2025.

I am a resident of Milwaukee, where I have served two congregations and, for the past 14 years, have been the Lutheran campus pastor at UW-Milwaukee. My husband, Kurt, is an architect working in campus planning at Marquette University. My daughter, Nadezhda, is an emergency room tech and a committed union organizer and activist. My son, Hans, is an improvisational pianist living in Brooklyn. In this new role, I will remain living in Milwaukee, but I am committed to be on site each week to be fully present to the ministry and people it serves.

I became acquainted with Holy Wisdom Monastery when I was a young seminary intern in Madison. A beautiful soul in my congregation who now also serves on the staff of Holy Wisdom, Pam Shellberg, invited me to retreat with her in the guest house. In those days, the prairies were mostly farm fields, but even then, the land gentled me and taught my heart to listen.

Over the years, I have come to Holy Wisdom’s sacred land to be in retreat with women’s groups, campus ministry colleagues and college students as well as for my own time of rest and renewal. Throughout the years, I have watched the land be transformed by seeds. Green corn stalks giving way to purple and yellow and every shade of blossoming. Tidy rows of plants to the wild richness of diverse life and ministry expanding along with the prairie.

In my own life, seeds have also been planted and ministry also expanded. As a parish pastor, I learned the rhythms of holding lives from the cradle to the grave, marking the passages of our human existence with sacred rituals that held a tenderness others could feel as God’s presence. In campus ministry, I learned to take those rituals into the world as calls for justice, deepening my courage as I walked alongside our rising generation to help them co-create a more whole and holy world. And in touch with my own spiritual becoming, I have also opened myself to energy work, became certified in therapeutic yoga, joined the herbal apprentices at Alice’s Garden Urban Farm, and have grown in my incarnational belief in the healing to be found within God’s presence in our own bodies and the body of the earth.

With these seeds growing inside of me, the call to walk alongside other clergy in their own deep and holy planting into God’s love feels ripe and ready. I will be grateful to listen, learn and pray among you in the year to come as my roots join yours in the deep soil of Holy Wisdom.

Peace,

Pastor Rachel Young Binter

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