King's Chapel, 58 Tremont St., Boston
“If you want to be a law enforcement chaplain,” Kate Braestrup writes, “you have to really like men.” Law enforcement remains a male-dominated field, it is paramilitary and hierarchical, and most officers use traditionally masculine tools (weapons, machines) to perform a traditionally male form of love that is often underappreciated: to serve and protect. Kate explores the challenges and opportunities of working with such men.
First Church in Boston, 66 Marlborough St., Boston
Social critic Michael Moore says that women continue to bring life into the world, while men continue to destroy it whenever they can. Knowing that it’s more complicated than that, Kate draws on her own experiences as a minister, a woman, and the mother of daughters, as well as on scripture and history, to consider the moral dimensions of women’s lives and loves.
A neonatal intensive care unit pediatrician asked Kate’s eldest son, “What do you want for your son?” This question was about medicine not parenting, neurology not theology. Still, the doctor asked a perfect question, one that might be asked of any parent at any time, and of any human being courageous or foolish enough to love another. And it ought to be asked of God whenever (or if ever) an opportunity for a divine interview presents itself. Kate considers and explore her daughter-in-law’s (perfect) answer: “I want him to be conscious of his surroundings. I want him to love and know that he is loved.”
Sunday Worship, King's Chapel, 58 Tremont St., Boston