On Veteran’s Day

Yesterday afternoon, a 35-year-old veteran died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the middle of the Occupy Burlington encampment in City Park (read/view the stories from the local news and the AP). While many have been quick to rush to judgements and political statements about the occupy movement, my colleague Mark reminds us not to…

Pastors only work on Sundays, right?

Today was one of those days. One of those wonderful, glorious days when it may have looked like I did very little to edit a church bulletin or craft a brilliant sermon, but the church and the people of God were foremost on my mind. I began the day with a meeting in Barre (next…

Local Press, and Pressing Issues

I recently attended a meeting in Montpelier that gained some local press attention. A group of team and agency members, local residents, and interested activists gathered to talk about the problem of lack of affordable housing in the Montpelier area, and the large and growing number of persons who are without housing, are marginally housed,…

Sermon: Tidings for the Downtrodden

"Tidings for the Downtrodden" (December 20, 2009) On Christmas we don't celebrate only how Jesus was born, but who he was and is, and for that we can get no better source than his own mother. In the passage known as the Magnificat, Mary describe what Jesus means to her, an unwed peasant girl: salvation,…

What I’d have said

I was invited to speak at the dinner tonight at my church for the Central Vermont Community Land Trust. Unfortunately, I have had a minor medical problem (some follow-up stuff from my miscarriage that necessitated a trip to the hospital, but I'm out and home and fine now) and have been confined to my house…

Affordable for who?

I attended a meeting last night about the future of housing in Montpelier. Montpelier has some interesting trends, which make housing a critical issue for the city. First, we have more jobs in the city than we have residents, which means that there's work to be had here, and that there are a lot of…

Confession and Compassion

Hopefully not too much navel-gazing. Maybe it's the election, or the extraordinary ordination or talking with folks struggling to find or afford housing, but I've been thinking a lot about privilege lately. With the exception of the fact that I'm a woman, I am a member of every privileged majority group I can think of:…

In the News

This past week, I had an article published in The Bridge, Montpelier's independent newspaper. That article was an edited version of two of my earlier posts about houselessness/homelessness (found here and here). Since that time, I've had several folks contact me about doing more together to find sustainable solutions to the housing shortage in our…

Its not homelessness, it’s houselessness.*

My husband commented in my previous post that my conversation marked a mere beginning in a chapter of my ministry, and he was right. My education about homelessness in Montpelier continued today, mostly in the form of a conversation over lunch with a wise man and fellow blogger, who has lots of insight into politics,…

Wake up Call

"Pastor, can I talk to you just a minute?" The fellow asking has a laugh-lined face and a voice gravelly from cigarette smoking. I stop mid-stride, and give him my full attention. He tells me that he's homeless, and that he sometimes sleeps on our handicap access ramp, because it's a gentle slope, and wood…