K.E. Butler

Dedicated by K.E. Butler, called to ministry in the PCUSA, a student at McCormick Seminary.  Lesbian, bipolar, suffering in mind and spirit.  I gift this stole, as I will most likely never wear one, to those of the dream -- and the conviction for justice.

Ich Glaube an Alles noch nie Gesagte

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free all that waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

If this is arrogance, God, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.
May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

When in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning, I will sing you as no one ever has,

streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

Rainer Maria Rilke

This stole was donated during a display at McCormick Seminary in 2003.  The display was sponsored by "Acts 10:15", an LGBT student group at McCormick.  Acts 10:15 is also a Student Chapter of More Light Presbyterians.  The donor is an extraordinarily bright young woman who carries the double burden of bipolar disease and the church's discriminatory practices against LGBT people, the combination of which she knows will undoubtedly prevent her from being ordained.

Martha Juillerat
Founder, Shower of Stoles Project
2006