A Letter from Lindy Jan 22
Pilgrims,
Does January feel like it's moving for you at the clipped pace it is for me? Perhaps when you step away for a week, everything thereafter feels a bit rushed. In my hurry to share Pilgrim’s good music news, I was woefully inadequate in offering my thanksgiving to Rev. Jim Smalley and everyone else who stepped in to shepherd worship during my absence on January 8. I am so grateful to be a part of a beloved community that lives into the priesthood of all believers.
A second word of gratitude for Rev. Nancy Donny who captivated the gathered with the invitation, on behalf of Pilgrim’s Race and Equity team, to lean into the Negro Spirituals Royalty Project as part of our collective anti-oppression work. Along the way, she got us to sing many familiar tunes while educating us about a subject every church person should be conversant in when it comes to the music we unknowingly appropriate. Our small way of creating the circles that break through dominant white systems and structures.
Let me offer another thank you in advance of it happening. This Sunday we will be graced with the presence and preaching of Duke PCM+ (newly ordained) Campus Minister, Jackie Rodriguez who is moving to her second semester on campus. As I sit on the PCM+ Board on Pilgrim’s behalf, because we are the + in its ministry, I hope you will receive her with grace and joy. Duke PCM+ is one of the only campus ministries that not only welcomes, but celebrates the participation of lgbtqia+ students. Thanks be to God for their witness!
A little something about Jackie: Rev. Jackie Rodriguez started as the new campus minister for Duke Presbyterian Campus Ministry in August 2022. She is a graduate of Princeton Seminary with a call to walk alongside college students in these exciting, unique, and important years of growth. Though born and raised in Florida, Jackie’s been a bit of a nomad over the last 8 years. She’s had the opportunity to live, learn, and do ministry in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Washington DC, Wisconsin, Israel, and England. Jackie’s greatest joy is getting to have deep conversations with people of all different backgrounds about life and faith, all while encouraging their hearts along whatever walks they are on. She is an ordained minister of the Word of Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Will you join me in preparing our hearts for worship!
Pastor Lindy (she/her) why pronouns matter
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