Before and After: Letters About Mary’s Place
Editor’s Note:
In late July, three women pastors from across the country traveled to Seattle to visit Mary’s Place and the Church of Mary Magdalene, a ministry for homeless women. Members of a Sustaining Pastoral Excellence peer group sponsored by the S3 Project at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga., they and the other group members had agreed as part of their S3 work to enter into an ongoing relationship with the Seattle ministry. This year, the group members have been visiting Mary’s Place and the Church of Mary Magdalene three at a time to get acquainted with the program and lay the groundwork for future visits and ministry. All women, the 12 group members—11 Presbyterians and one United Methodist—attended San Francisco Theological Seminary together and now serve across the United States as pastors, hospice chaplains, presbytery executives, seminary staff, spiritual directors and retreat leaders, published authors and church musicians.
Before and after the July trip, the Rev. Terry Hart, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Tulia, Tex., wrote the following letters to her congregation about the experience. At the bottom, she has added a “P.S.” for the SPE community.
July, 2006
First Presbyterian Church
Tulia, Tex.
Dear Friends,
The end of this month, I will be going to Seattle to visit the Church of Mary Magdalene with two of my colleagues from seminary. According to its mission statement, this church is “a diverse Christian community of homeless and formerly homeless women, providing a safe environment to build relationships, experience hope and love, explore faith and develop strength to reach one's full potential.” Though ecumenical in outreach and nurture, it was founded in 1991 by Presbyterian Minister Jean Kim. One of my colleagues, Rev. Amy Seymour-Haney served as an intern there a few years back.
Why would I travel nearly 2000 miles to visit a church for homeless women? The simple answer is because it is part of my commitment to my S3 study and support group, the 12 women, and to the Lilly Foundation that is funding our work together. In other words, I’m going because I said I would.
But that is not the whole story. My reasons are much deeper than I can fully articulate in this space. During my years working in San Francisco, I passed a sea of homeless people, men, women and children everyday. The need was so overwhelming and heartbreaking that I was at a loss on how to respond. Two women stand out in my mind.
The first looked to be in her 70’s. She sat, gray hair pulled back in a bun, bundled up in a black scarf and black coat in front of a Starbucks across the street from the Embarcadero Hyatt. She was there almost everyday, a cup for donations on the sidewalk in front of her. I don’t recall ever hearing her say anything.
The second slept in the lot where I parked my car. I can’t begin to guess how old she was. Her time on the street had surely aged her. I often wondered, “How long would I be able to survive if I had no safe, clean place to sleep?”
I don’t have any significant stories about these two women. Nothing enlightening, or endearing, or inspiring to report. To be honest, I often looked away when I saw them. I never spoke to them. I never helped them. I said all the excuses that we all say, “What could I do that would make a difference? Maybe they’re not even homeless but con artists. If I give them money, they’ll come to expect it and they’ll tell others, then what do I do.”
Maybe I’m going to Seattle because of my guilt for not even taking the time or having the courage to face my fear long enough to find out the names of these two children of God. Maybe I’m going because I’m tired of feeling so helpless and hopeless when confronted by poverty, cycles of addiction, despair and suffering.
What do I expect from my few days at the Church of Mary Magdalene? In Matthew 25, we read that what we do for “the least of these” we do for Christ. Perhaps the reason I’m going is the simple reason after all—because I said I would.
My hope is that the time spent listening to, learning from, and praying and worshipping with the homeless women will glorify and honor God. My expectation is that God will use these experiences to change me in ways I cannot even imagine.
Many blessings,
Rev. Terry Hart
September, 2006
First Presbyterian Church
Tulia, Tex.
Dear Friends,
Many of you have asked about my recent trip to the Church of Mary Magdalene in Seattle. Your questions reflect a desire to understand what is nearly impossible to imagine—how someone can end up without the means to meet their basic human needs for shelter, clothing and food in this land of plenty.
The Church of Mary Magdalene worships together on Saturday mornings. The Saturday I was there, the sermon was entitled “Is There Enough,” from John 6: 1-21. In this passage Jesus fed the 5,000 with a little boy’s lunch and walked on the stormy seas to stand by the side of the frightened disciples. Nearly half the sermon was devoted to three questions.
The first question the pastor asked was, “Where do you experience God’s abundance?” My gut response was to ask myself, “How can she ask this question here in this place filled with poor and homeless women?”
I learned from the women’s responses that this was the absolute right question to ask.
There were many answers—“in getting up each day”, “in the community we have here at Mary’s Place,” and surprisingly, “in homelessness, because before I was homeless I didn’t know what it meant to trust in God’s grace.” Obviously, I have much to learn about the true nature of God’s abundance.
The second question was,”What keeps us from experiencing Christ’s abundance?” Ah, this question made sense to me. I expected to hear at least someone blame the system, their parents, the harshness of society, the church.
Instead many voices shouted that the one person or event that keeps us from experiencing God’s grace is our own self. The reasons we don’t experience God’s abundance are fear, pride, trying to solve all our problems on our own, unwillingness to accept help, turning to substances and things instead of to God. These are what separate us from the abundance of God.
The final question the interim pastor asked, “What would you like me to tell my congregation tomorrow?”
Before my time in Seattle, I would have bet that such a question would be met with requests for financial and material help.
Again my preconceived notions were shaken to the core by the women’s replies. Tell your congregation to “remember that we are the body of Christ too”, “not to be afraid of us”, and that “we need you to stand with us more than we need your castoffs.”
I’ve pondered that worship service often (and shared about it in my sermon on August 6.) In the end I’m left wondering how we would answer these same questions.
How do you and I experience God’s abundance? What keeps us from experiencing God’s abundance? And a twist on the last question, What would we like to tell the women who make up the Church of Mary Magdalene?
Many Blessings,
Rev. Terry Hart
December, 2006
P.S., To the SPE Community:
Perhaps the biggest learning for me has been the similarity between the women of Mary’s Place and the Church of Mary Magdalene and ourselves. What I witnessed during my visit was a strong desire for and sense of community –a place to be accepted for who you are and to be seen and heard, a place to belong. That is what the 12 women in my S3 group continue to be for me – a community of grace that nurtures my soul, a place to tell my story and to hear the stories of my sisters, a circle of trust.
To God be the glory,
Rev. Terry Hart
