Dearly Beloved,
On this bitterly cold morning, as we prepare to remember and celebrate the life of Karen Orth, I am reminded of the gifts of being church together. Karen knew those gifts better than most people -- the wife of a pastor and mother to five children. I don't know how much Karen cared about preaching or the words that we spend so much time saying in church, but she loved the music. She knew that music spoke directly to the soul in ways that words just can't do. She spent years playing organs and pianos in churches, singing in church choirs, helping her children sing solos at church, accompanying her husband and sons singing special music.
She also loved the community -- she knew the value of the conversation, the relationship, the camaraderie. She understood that, at the end of the day, it's not what you believe so much as how you show up in relationship to others and to God.
In the last few months, I also learned that Karen had her own way of doing things and a sense of fun and play. She delighted in life and, even in the midst of her own declining health, found reason to laugh and joke, to find and share joy with the people around her. One of the great gifts for me this last Advent season was a Sunday morning when a group of people from our congregation went to visit Karen in her nursing home to sing carols with her. We gathered around Nicoletta Glantz, playing piano, and sang every carol we could think of. That would never have happened without Karen, and our shared joy and praise filled the whole of the house where she lived. And that was her gift -- bringing people together, helping people find and create beauty and connection.
Please hold the Orth family in your prayers this morning as they remember and celebrate Karen.
And hold one another in love and care -- after all, relationship, community, love: these are the center of what it means to be beloved community together. These are the pillars upon which God's realm is built.
I'm so grateful to be in community with each of you. I pray that you may be warm and well today.
With love,
Thandiwe
