Friends,

Last February I sold cake pops and this month I am promising all of my guilty-giver Christian friends peace of mind because you forgot to pay your tithe last month and promised yourself you would this month. :)

Stormy seas brought mine and Benjamin's little boat to rest in New York City for a summer. I anticipated my Yale Divinity internship in Brooklyn, NY at St. Lydia's Dinner Church to be a joyful partnership of cooking, running errands, and leading Bible studies in other's absence but instead it is a joyful partnership of learning, healing, and discerning (although if someone tells me to clean something or to teach something, I WILL).

St. Lydia's was founded in 2008 as a gathering of people looking for people looking for God. It is "...A progressive, LGBTQ-affirming congregation in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York...working together to dispel isolation, reconnect neighbors, and subvert the status quo."

Within one church service, every attendee gets to be outdoors, indoors, eat dinner, share communion, listen, speak, learn, teach, pray, and sing.

St. Lydia's congregants are called "Lydians". I didn't think I'd be a true Lydian due to the short nature of my time here, but a few days ago someone told me I was a Lydian.

This summer I am reading, researching, talking, preaching, praying, and helping. I can't wait to see the beauty that emerges and the beauty that is already here.