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I am a Quaker from New England with experience in multiple denominations including the United Church of Christ. I received my Master of Divinity from Earlham School of Religion and then have filled several Quaker positions in youth ministry and service organizations. My experience has given me practical skills of community-building, from fundraising to working with committees. My ministry has a foundation in my own prayer, openness to the inner experience of the Spirit and the strength I get from the example and assurance of Christ's love for the world. My work with other people is founded on accepting people, created as works-in-progress, part of the divine fabric. I express this, I am told, in a healing and peaceful presence. I am interested in drawing out people's capacities and helping the community build itself through strategic functions like welcoming newcomers, fundraising and helping each person contribute their particular gift. Particular gifts I bring to ministry are preaching, visiting, counseling, helping people in crisis, healing, youthwork, building community, preaching, administration and leadership ability. I grew up going to Quaker Meeting, but it was at college that I was really inspired by wise elders and a friend to deepen my own spirituality. Because I knew my life was for service, and I needed to prepare, I went to seminary. I gained a foundation there - a deeper understanding of the life and meaning of Jesus, and an experience of the reality of prayer. Other significant points came while visiting the Taize community - which showed me God's love as a reality in community - and in meeting and learning from several healers, who awakened my own healing awareness. While in seminary, I worked with peer counselors in the high school, which served as my ministry field placement. I was inspired by working with teens and continued it at Powell House, where I served as Youth Director, and since then on a volunteer basis with the high school Young Friends program. I was also inspired by the power of service, both in the lives of volunteers and as a setting for community. That led to work with the American Friends Service Committee. The contacts I made there helped me launch Quaker Volunteer Service, a Friend's equivalent of Jesuit Volunteer Corps. As that ended, the opportunity came to work for a railroad, which was an old childhood dream. I'm glad I did this, but I realized quickly that I was making a detour from the ministry work that is mine. My work so far has given me experience in crisis counseling, developing volunteers, building community in groups, inspiring youth, preaching, fundraising (which another form of caring for relationship), working with committees, outreach, witness, developing service projects. I am 32, single. I hike, sing and contra
dance, which is where I find my community of friends.
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