The Journey

I grew up with three sisters and two brothers- a Catholic family as you may have guessed. The priest told my mother, ‘you have ‘em and the Lord will take care of ‘em.’ I’m not sure that’s the way it worked-perhaps more like-‘you have ‘em and you take care of em’- though I imagine the Lord was there to help as well.

Growing up Catholic was a pretty common occurence in Sag Harbor. When we were all released early Thursday afternoons to run down to the Catholic School for our CCD classes-there were very few left in our classroom. I think my mom was Lutheran but she converted to Catholicism in order to marry my father-and we all followed in line. It was a very significant part of our lives.

I’ve written about the time my closest friend and I built our own church in the dirt pile across the road from her house-complete with flowers, an altar and communion hosts fashioned from Wonder Bread. It was then that I knew I wanted to be part of a church.

One of my most powerful recollections of my grandmother, aside from the time my friend and I tried to pull her down the hill in front of our house in a radio flyer wagon, was the time she looked out over the saltmarsh and reminded me to thank God for my eyes that could see all of that beauty. Her humble and simple words made such an impression on me. She taught me that this Great Spirit of Life was in that saltmarsh, as well as in the forest, the ocean, the flowers and each other.

Had I not grown up Catholic I may have considered going to college to become a minister-but of course that was never possible, so I went on to study music therapy and education and had a long and wonderful career teaching at the Elementary School. Near the end of my teaching career I attended a seminary in Manhattan for two years to become an interfaith minister-this is someone that studies and honors the paths of the world’s religions, often while maintaining their own path. This enabled me to be a guest minister in local churches as well as officiate ceremonies- weddings, funerals, memorials, baby blessings. What an honor that has been.

After their minister departed, I have been guest minister at Old Whalers’ Church in Sag Harbor- my hometown. It has been such an joy to serve the community I love. I lay awake at night thinking of ways that I might help to bring the community together. It seems as though we have lost our youth centers as well as many of the community groups and activities which once were at the heart of Sag Harbor. My dream is to work with the fine folks at Old Whalers’ to continue to grow community, to offer new programs for children and adults, to create Sunday services and messages that we can carry home with us and to keep our doors open. Old Whalers’ has stood as a beacon to Sag Harbor and we hope to continue to let those lights shine. It takes community to build community.

So that is where I will be Sunday mornings at 10 -and we would love for you to join us!