March 2024

In honor of approaching Holy Week, a group of folks gathered to create crosses after worship last Sunday at my internship. One of the church’s members is a wood-worker so he and his wife made a bunch of wood crosses from scrap wood. They brought all sorts of art supplies for us to use to decorate the handmade crosses. We had a beautiful time of fellowship with each other. We flexed our creative muscles as we reflected on the cross, Christ's boundary-breaking ministry, and his brutal death that saved all of us from our sins. What a wonderful experience, especially because I had just preached a sermon on Philippians 2:1-11! 

As part of Lent, my husband and I have read a devotional or prayer from Cole Arthur Riley’s book "Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human" a few times each week. If you have not heard of this book, I’d highly recommend you check it out from your local library or purchase it. It’s a beautiful book of prayers, devotionals, and thought-provoking messages all based in Scripture. My Confirmation Mentor (from 2008) bought the book for me as a gift (isn't that neat?!).

After our Cross-Making Workshop

A few of our crosses.

February 2024

I find it hard to believe that February is already drawing to a close. It feels like I just wrote my January blog post yet as I reflect on the last month, a lot has happened! This post is more informational than engaging, but I want to share these updates with y'all. 

- At the end of January, I took 2 of the PCUSA ordination exams (Worship & Sacraments and Bible Exegesis). I spent over 50 hours on the exams in a period of 6 days. Months of preparation for both of the exams helped me to pass both of them (and I passed the Bible Content Exam last August), which is something for which I am grateful and of which I am very proud.

- As part of my internship, I attend Care Team (we do not have Deacons and instead have Ruling Elders and the Care Team) meetings monthly and I engage in pastoral care. At the February Care Team meeting, I experienced the joy of crafting with the Care Team. We made Valentine gifts (a pearl and lace Valentine decoration) for members of the church who are homebound. I loved delivering the gifts to a few members of the church and seeing the delight in their eyes. 

- At the beginning of February I taught Sunday School at Ginter Park Presbyterian Church. I led a discussion about Aging & Spirituality, which was informed by seminars that I have attended at Westminster Canterbury in Richmond, VA. On that same Sunday, I co-led worship with my supervisor, Pastor Carla, and the President of Union Presbyterian Seminary, Dr. Jacqueline Lapsley. What a privilege and joy it was to co-lead worship alongside these two women ministers (Dr. Jacq is the first female president of Union Presbyterian Seminary & Pastor Carla is the first female minister of Ginter Park Presbyterian Church!).

- My husband and I traveled to Maryland on a Saturday to visit family and attend the Iowa Women's Basketball game versus University of Maryland. We loved watching the famous Caitlin Clark play basketball and seeing all of the University of Iowa fans who traveled in from so many places. Among the immense knowledge I have gained at my internship, I have learned the challenge of working on Sundays. Of course I knew about this challenge since I am a preacher's kid. But it is different when you are the one who is waking up early Sunday morning for a full day of work! I am grateful to my husband who drove us home from MD at 11pm on that Saturday so that I could sleep and be prepared for church in the morning. We are continuously learning what this balance looks like. 

- I applied for and was selected to be a part of a Public Theology travel seminar to South Africa in May 2024 with my seminary. We will focus on public theology in South Africa, particularly as it relates to the work of justice and reconciliation in the aftermath of apartheid. The travel seminar will take place in collaboration with the School of Theology at the University of Stellenbosch, which houses the Beyers Naudé Center for Public Theology. We will visit sites of significance in the South African church struggle and participate in a class at the University of Stellenbosch on contemporary confessions, including the South African Kairos Document and the Belhar Confession. I am incredibly excited for this opportunity!

- Lent began at my internship with an Ash Wednesday Supper Church service. We fellowshipped over soup and bread, invited each other into a practice of Lenten discipleship, chatted with folks at our dinner tables about our spiritual practices, and then we received ashes (and I had the opportunity to impose ashes, which was a very powerful experience). As I reflected on the conversations with folks during Ash Wednesday Supper Church, I decided to add a spiritual practice to my life during this season of Lent. So far, my daily spiritual practice addition is either 5-10 minutes of centering prayer or doing "homework for life," which I learned about in my Introduction to Preaching class when we watched this TEDx video from Matthew Dicks.

I am grateful for the love, support, and prayers from my family, friends and church communities. May you feel God's constant love and boundless grace around you each day.

Peace and blessings,

Caitlin

Ruach

    For the last 6 months I have struggled with chronic hoarseness. As a parish intern who co-leads worship weekly and engages in many pastoral care visits, this has been difficult. Additionally, not being able to speak much in classes and not talking on the phone with family and friends has been an adjustment. In November, I was diagnosed with nodules on my vocal cords and muscle strain as a result of the nodules. I have been in speech therapy for the last six weeks. My biggest takeaway from speech therapy is the reminder to breathe --- and not just to breathe but to breathe properly; slowly, deeply, from the diaphragm, and often.

    The deep breathing, which I now try to practice each time I speak, forces me to slow down and to speak intentionally. The practice of deep breathing enables me to pay close attention when I read scripture, to emphasize pauses between sentences while I preach, and to honor silence that comes between sentences, words, and deep breaths. My breath is a sign of my being alive and it is what helps my voice be unique and clear. The breath work that I am engaged in reminds me of the Hebrew word ruach, which means "breath" or "wind" or "spirit." When I breathe deeply, I invite myself to feel God's Spirit to move through and around me. Ruach dances, stretches, and blows in and around each of us. Sometimes, God's Spirit even stirs us in ways we never imagined. I am grateful for the gift of breath and for God's boundless Spirit who works in and among us. May we each find time to breathe deeply, to create space for God's spirit, and to be aware of how the Spirit might be guiding us.

    Below is a copy of a breathing exercise that folks of Ginter Park Presbyterian Church (GPPC) engaged in when I preached and led worship on January 7th:

Breathe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Let Her stir within you.

And breathe out the light that your gifts bring to illuminate our world.

Preaching on Ruth 1 and Psalm 13

Wow! I cannot believe that it has been almost 4 months since I published a blog post. In the last 5 months I have finished my first year of seminary, studied for the Bible Content Exam (I take the exam on September 1st), preached twice, gotten married, and started intensive biblical Greek class.

Community

In March, my mom visited me in Richmond and brought with her numerous cards that she and my dad received when I was born. These cards were from church communities where my dad interned, where my parents had attended, churches that my grandparents attended, and the church that helped raise and form me from my birth. One of the cards was from St. Andrew Presbyterian Church and is pictured below:

Now, almost 30 years after St. Andrew Presbyterian Church mailed this to my parents, I am officially under the care of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church and Grace Presbytery as a Candidate in the PCUSA. My family has a long and rich history at St. Andrew; my grandparents joined there in 1971, my father, aunts, and uncle grew up in the church, my aunt Betsy was married there, we celebrated the lives of my grandfather and my aunt Helen there and their ashes lay at rest in St. Andrew's columbarium. In 2016, my dad was called to be the Senior Pastor at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church. Indeed, the Culps have always been a part of St. Andrew.

I am humbled, joyful, and grateful to be under the care of St. Andrew Presbyterian and to have had their love and support for the last 29 years. Thank you to the St. Andrew community for holding me in your care for all these years, most especially now as I discern my call to ministry.

I am thankful for the communities of which I now am a part and the church communities who've helped form, shape, raise, and teach me.

💙💙💙

With just three weeks left in the semester, I have a busy week of community justice advocacy, classes, homework, and worship. Then, I will begin working diligently on two final projects, studying for a final examination, and writing two final essays. Earlier this month, I interviewed with the Committee on Preparation for Ministry and was approved to be a Candidate under Grace Presbytery's care. I also received a scholarship from Grace Presbytery. Thank you to Grace Presbytery, St. Andrew's Session, and my liaisons for the constant support!

Shortly after receiving that exciting news, I was called to be a 2nd Year Seminary Intern at Ginter Park Presbyterian Church (GPPC). GPPC is just one block from UPSEM's campus so I'll be able to continue my walking commute! I will not be taking a class during the May term since I have too many credits at this time. But, I will start intensive Summer Greek class in July. I am actively preparing for the Bible Content Exam, which I'll take for the first time Labor Day weekend. Finally, I was just elected Service Deacon for the Richmond Student Government Association and will start that new role in the Fall. I carried out the last of my official 1st Level Representative duties last week by making "finals treat bags" for all of the 1st year students.

In addition to all of my seminary and Presbytery activities, I get married in June and while time is flying by, we're very excited about our upcoming nuptials.

Lastly, I will be at St. Andrew in-person for worship on April 23rd and May 15th and look forward to worshiping with my St. Andrew family in-person. I hear that there's a guest preacher on May 15th --- guess who it is?!

With Gratitude and Blessings,

Caitlin

My favorite part of the week is post-class lunches outside with friends.

We had an evening worship service and it was still light outside when it ended so we took advantage of the weather and explored the neighborhood!

Just a snippet of UPSEM's gorgeous library (if I don't have class and it's a weekday between 9am and 5pm, I am in a carrel at the library!)

I love my job of driving folks to the grocery store. Last Friday, we also swung by a plant store for fun!

Hosea, the Holy Spirit, and the Genuine

This semester, I am taking Old Testament II, History of Christianity II, Spirit in the World, Social Justice & the Care of Souls, and a 1 credit hour course called Intersecting Faith and Academic Journeys. The Holy Spirit has been on my heart and mind for the last few weeks as we study the Protestant Reformation, Jesuit missions across the world, and who and how folks describe and believe in the Holy Spirit. 

A couple of weeks ago, the focus of Old Testament class was the book of Hosea, specifically examining Hosea from a feminist and womanist (the term "womanism" was coined by Alice Walker in 1982. A womanist is a Black feminist or feminist of color. Click here to learn about UPSEM's Center for Womanist Leadership) critique. The first time that I closely engaged with the book of Hosea was during my Women in the Biblical World class last fall; we studied Gomer, the wife of Hosea. So, the feminist critique of Hosea did not come as a surprise to me. But, the historical context and intense language of the "marriage metaphor" struck me again and again. We had a tough week of learning about Hosea; the abusive language, the violence, the voicelessness of Gomer, the assumptions about Gomer, and the intensity of the metaphor left us feeling upset and raw. There was an opportunity to write my exegesis paper on Hosea so that I could learn more. But, there was no way I was doing that. I wanted to run as far away from Hosea as I could!

So, I continued to gather notes for the exegesis I already started for Amos. I tried to put Hosea in my rearview mirror. But, I kept feeling a tug, a push, a pull. I told my friend, Kaylyn, about the feelings I was having. We concurred that it was the Holy Spirit who was pushing me. But, I had so many reasons for why I needed to ignore the Holy Spirit. Logistically, I could not shift so late in the game. Timing wise, I had already started gathering resources and writing my translation for Amos. Emotionally, it would be too difficult. The reasons kept coming! Then, Kaylyn stopped me and asked how many hours I had spent preparing for Amos (she knew it was probably less than an hour). Before I could even respond, Kaylyn said, "Caitlin, I think you should listen to that tug. I think you might be able to create something beautiful out of this if you listen to the Holy Spirit."

My brain and my body tried to ignore the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit cannot be ignored. The Holy Spirit was guiding, challenging, and pushing me. As Howard Thurman puts it in his commencement speech titled The Sound of the Genuine,

"So the burden of what I have to say to you is, “What is your name— who are you—and can you find a way to hear the sound of the genuine in yourself?” There are so many noises going on inside of you, so many echoes of all sorts, so many internalizing of the rumble and the traffic, the confusions, the disorders by which your environment is peopled that I wonder if you can get still enough—not quiet enough—still enough to hear rumbling up from your unique and essential idiom the sound of the genuine in you. I don’t know if you can. But this is your assignment." Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman

Thurman describes the Genuine as being within each one of us. I have been thinking about the Genuine that is inside of me and how I think that She (the Hebrew word for "spirit," רוּחַ, is a feminine word so it is often translated with feminine pronouns) is the Holy Spirit within me. It's easy to try to ignore the Spirit, to push the Spirit aside because we don't have time for the Spirit to change our plans, and to not believe that the Spirit really is here with us --- within each of us. The last couple of weeks have shown me that the Genuine is within me and when I take time to slow down, to be still, to really listen and feel, I am able to connect with the Holy Spirit. 

Kaylyn was correct. I submitted my exegesis paper this morning and writing the paper was cathartic and empowering. I hope to share my takeaways with y'all one day.

For now, I want to thank you all for following along and supporting me on this journey of discernment and seminary. Please be in touch with me if you'd like to chat, want to learn more about what I am learning, or if you would like to be added or included in my prayer list. I hope you are able to listen for the "sound of the genuine" in yourselves. Know that the Holy Spirit is always alongside you, too. Peace be with each of you. 

Caitlin

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P.S. 

So much of seminary is reading! And often, the readings are wonderful! Sometimes we listen to podcasts and watch videos, too. I thought it would be fun to share some of the most meaningful pieces with you all (the ones that are readily available online, anyway). Check them out below:

• Union Presbyterian Seminary @ Richmond's Chapel in honor of the start of Black History Month: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCZVtFf23jY --- the Holy Spirit was THERE! It was an incredibly beautiful service of music and prayer.

• A blog post/sermon about Gomer and her translation of Hosea from a favorite theologian and preacher of mine, Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney. She is a professor at Brite Divinity at TCU! https://www.wilgafney.com/2018/09/24/when-gomer-looks-more-like-god/

• Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman's "The Sound of the Genuine" https://www.uindy.edu/eip/files/reflection4.pdf

• This is a wonderful Youtube video/podcast about Thurman's commencement speech and the journey to understanding the Genuine within ourselves. It was a fascinating and inspiring listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGKn0ov7jEY

Waiting: Fogginess and Anticipation

The following Advent Candle reading is from The Christmas Love Feast worship service at Ginter Park Presbyterian Church in Richmond, VA. The reading uses words from. Rev. Drs. Wilda Gafney and Howard Thurman as well as the Iona Community.

"We are waiting. We are waiting in the dark. We are waiting in the holy darkness. We are waiting in the womb of God. Between this advent and the next, we wait. (Gafney)

In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair. (Thurman)

God of the waiting ones, the watching ones, the slow and suffering ones, the angels in heaven, the child.

As we light these candles, we pray that you will give us your blessing, your good word for our souls. May we rest and rise in the kindness of your company." (The Iona Community)

Advent is a season of hope, joy, love, and peace. This season invites and encourages us to be patient, to sit in discomfort or silence, and to prepare for the Christ child. As a child, Advent was the time of year when Lucy would teach me how to make my own Advent wreath and when the whole sanctuary turned purple and green (purple for the liturgical time and green for the greenery and Christmas tree). In recent years, Advent was a time of anticipation, hope, and anxiousness as the pandemic changed my plans, and yours probably too, almost daily. This year, Advent has been marked by final papers, a final exam, contracting COVID-19, and missing many events for which I was excited. Yet even in a season of illness, sadness, and stress, God has been calling me and reminding me to wait --- to be patient, to listen closely, to rest well, and to embrace the darkness.

Dr. Lemma, a Hebrew scholar and wonderful teacher and colleague of mine, shares with his students that "fogginess is the dawn of clarity." Fogginess comes in all shapes and forms; we face unique challenges and have varied circumstances. For some of us, the Advent season is difficult as we grieve the loss of loved ones and worry about what the new year will bring. For others of us, the Advent season is a reminder of the gifts we have been given and it pushes us to find peace and ways to spread that peace. For some, the Advent season is the challenge to be patient, to wait, to contemplate, and to meditate. However you are feeling this Advent season, I hope that you are able to find glimmers of joy, moments of peace, people to love and who love you, and time to hope. We are in this waiting time together and as Dr. Lemma reminded me often, "fogginess is the dawn of clarity." This Advent season might be foggy but my prayer is for clarity for each of you as we approach Christmas.

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Peace be with each of you this holiday season. Finals ended last week, my Winter Break to-do list is long, and I have taken a nap and watched a Christmas movie almost daily since Break began! I am working on scholarship applications for SY23-24, starting to review Presbytery forms about becoming a Candidate, and am going to create a Bible Content Exam study schedule to begin in the Spring. I am excited for our family vacation out West but am sad to miss seeing my St. Andrew family this Christmas. Thank you for your continued prayers, support, and encouragement.

Warmly,

Caitlin